Rose McGee’s ‘Kumbayah’ marks 30 years of telling freedom’s story

Minnesota playwright Rose McGee’s “Kumbayah The Juneteenth Story” marked its 30th anniversary June 26 with two performances at St. Paul’s The O’Shaughnessy. The play, which tells the stories of enslaved people near Galveston, Texas, aims to educate audiences and cast members alike about the history and legacy of Juneteenth.

At its 30th anniversary, “Kumbayah” remains tragically relevant.

In the play, two white Texans stop Lewis, a young Black man who is on a road by himself. When the scene takes place, President Abraham Lincoln has already signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but white officials and slaveholders in Texas have deliberately withheld information about it. Lewis and over 250,000 other Black people in Texas are still enslaved. The two men ask Lewis for his pass, suggesting he could be a runaway. Before giving him the opportunity to present it, they lynch him when they learn he knows of the Emancipation Proclamation and could tell other enslaved people about their freedom.

In a Q&A session after the performance, actor Dan Britt drew parallels between this scene and Operation Metro Surge, when ICE officials took neighbors off the street much like the two white Texans took Lewis.

McGee added in an interview that both the scene and Operation Metro Surge involved officials asking for people’s official passes but carrying out violence regardless. She connected the violence in her play to police brutality as well.

“We saw [that behavior] blatantly with Alex, as well as with Renee,” McGee said. “They were just regular citizens, and it didn’t matter. They were still killed.

“We saw George Floyd, we’ve seen Trayvon Martin, we’ve seen Daunte Wright … being killed simply because they may not be in compliance with what somebody thinks is the right thing to be in compliance with,” she continued. “People weren’t allowed in the [era of the] play … and even now, to exercise any right of freedom.”

At its heart, “Kumbayah” is about freedom and perseverance. It gives voice to enslaved Africans doubting whether they will ever be free and daring to hope for it anyway, and depicts them finally hearing of their freedom.

“Kumbayah’s” main storyline follows Lewis and Florence, two fictionalized enslaved people near Galveston. The two young people fall in love as Lewis, who believes that freedom is coming, goes off to Galveston to sell his master’s wares. Though Florence and the rest of their community struggle to see freedom as a tangible future, they live to hear General Gordon Granger’s June 19, 1865 announcement that Black people in Texas had been freed. Juneteenth celebrates the anniversary of the day that these characters’ real-life counterparts learned of their freedom.

“I wanted the audience to feel that relief that captives had … [and] to process, ‘hey, this is what happened, this is why it happened, and this is how it leads us to where we are today in American society,'” said Jawad Towns Jr., who played Lewis.

The scene preceding Lewis and Florence’s story gives Juneteenth modern context, depicting a Black community in the 1990s discussing the holiday. Other scenes bring African perspectives into the conversation, depicting a slave catcher stealing African people from a market and telling the audience about how recently some African countries won their independence from European colonizers.

The play also interrogates Lincoln’s legacy. Lincoln himself is never depicted, but his enslaved workers find his drafts of the Emancipation Proclamation. An actor portraying Frederick Douglass asserts that Lincoln and the Republicans “did wrong by choice and right by necessity,” and declares that future generations must become educated about this history.

“Kumbayah” came into being to teach audiences about Juneteenth. Over 30 years ago, the Twin Cities Juneteenth Committee invited McGee to add an educational component to its Juneteenth programming. Communities were celebrating the holiday with a parade and other festivities, but the committee was concerned that people didn’t understand what the holiday was about.

Decades later, Towns still sees a lack of information about Juneteenth. He said he did not know about Juneteenth at all until middle school. Though his classes in middle and high school dealt with slavery, he said they did not home in specifically on the Emancipation Proclamation or Juneteenth.

“We’ve got a whole federal system that says we’re not to teach these things anymore,” McGee said. “They want to act like it never happened. … Some are not teaching it for fear that they’ll get fired or reprimanded, and that has been the case already in some [places].”

Within this context, McGee believes it is important that Friday morning’s show was filled with students, kids in summer programs and teachers.

“Kumbayah” provides an educational experience for its cast members as well. The company takes trips to sites that connect with the play. Recently, they visited George Floyd Square and the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial in Duluth, which aims to bring attention to the 1920 lynching of three Black men in the city.

Many “Kumbayah” actors return to the company year after year, some of them growing up in the play as they move from portraying the youngest kids to the young adults, or from the young adults to figures like Frederick Douglass.

Towns, who is in his fifth year acting in “Kumbayah,” has developed his understanding of his identity through his experience with the play.

“It has helped me feel closer to my people [and more] connected with my culture,” Towns said. “It’s important to recognize that I am talking about my ancestors. These are some of the people that I am family with, that have been freed from captivity.”

“Kumbayah” cast members believe that the play imparts life lessons outside of its teachings about Juneteenth.

“It’s an understanding that we, the people, still hold the power,” featured soloist Jamela Pettiford said. “It’s also a reminder of just how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go, and that it’s going to take all of us on one accord to make [change] happen.”

For more information about the play, visit www.mnhum.org/event/st-paul-kumbayah-the-juneteenth-story-30th-anniversary/.

Ella Stern is a contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

Ella Stern is a contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.com. She welcomes reader responses at erstern10@gmail.com.