Saturday’s Juneteenth Heritage Festival celebrated all parts of Black culture, but for the city’s Black Caribbean residents, it felt like home.
Jefferson City, home to one of the two historically Black colleges and universities in Missouri, boasts a higher Black population (16.1 percent) than its larger regional neighbor, Columbia (12.2 percent), and similarly sized Missouri cities like Cape Girardeau (13.2 percent) and Sedalia (4 percent), according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
No small part of that Black population comes from Caribbean immigrants, attracted by Lincoln University and its track and soccer programs. The Caribbean pipeline has been prolific in producing runners and trophies for the Blue Tigers’ track program, with more than a dozen women’s NCAA Division II Track and Field National Championships since 2003. The Blue Tigers most recently won back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019.
Many of those athletes stay in the area and some had a bite of home cooking among the festivities Saturday, with local food vendors Kool Runnin Yardi’s Jamaican Cuisine and Mitchell’s Cuisine both serving up Caribbean fare like jerk chicken and oxtail.
“We love from the heart, and the food is great and tremendous,” Ieshia Hites, a Jefferson City native and Mitchell’s Cuisine cashier, said of the growing community around the food truck. “It’s wonderful being able to see different people that never tried us before, or they always miss us. … They come here and they’re like, ‘Hey, I gotta make sure we get your food. You know what I’m saying?'”
Rusheda and Kizan David, two Lincoln track alums with several All-American finishes between them, have been coming to Juneteenth festivals since their first years at Lincoln after immigrating from the Caribbean. The two brought their son to his second Juneteenth Heritage Festival on Saturday, a chance, they said, to expose him to Black and Black Caribbean culture.
“I know what to expect when I come around here, just to connect,” said Rusheda David, who came to Capital City from Manchester, Jamaica.
“See some people you haven’t seen in a while,”added in Kizan David, a St. Kitts and Nevis native.
“Check out the food trucks,” Rusheda David added with a smile.
Mitchell’s Cuisine has been serving Juneteenth festivities since 2022, owner Steve Mitchell said. The annual chance to connect with his community, and share a piece of his culture with those outside it, is one he said he relishes.
“Juneteenth is traditional for us. Our ancestors are the meaning behind Juneteenth,” Mitchell, a native of St. Mary’s, Jamaica, said while tending to his grill. “They had their experience, fought their fight, and made it possible for us to celebrate something worthwhile, that’s cultural, that’s the whole community spirit.”
Mitchell and Hites said their clientele, both Caribbean and non-Caribbean, has continued to grow. Mitchell, whose wife is a Lincoln alum, attributed that to the Lincoln University athletic programs.
Hites put it more simply.
“Good food, everybody loves good food,” she said.
Abram Barker/News Tribune photo: Gary Wallace of Mom and Pop from West Plains makes an order of loaded ribbon fries for a customer on Saturday during the Juneteenth Heritage Festival at Soldiers Field.
