Negro Election Day Festival Could Be Cancelled For 2024

Why is the city of Salem using, selective exclusion to destroy our black festival, February events and the history of slavery with deceptive practices?

On December 6th, 2023, I, Doreen Wade, President of Salem United, Inc., sat in a meeting with Mayor Dominick Pangallo of Salem, MA, as he announced that Salem United, Inc. could not raise money, nor charge vendors a fee, as all organizations do. If we did, the 284-year-old event, Negro Election Day, now a State Holiday, would become privatized, all financial responsibility on Salem United, Inc, a not-for-profit organization. We went through this financial argument in 2018, at a city council meeting when it was stated Salem United would not bear the city of Salem's financial responsibility; Mayor Pangallo was Kim Driscoll's Chief of Staff with full knowledge of this agreement.

In attendance in that December meeting were City officials, a Senator, State Representative, Parks and Recreation officials, Organization President, City D.E.I. official, Members of Salem United and others City Officials.

After that meeting I, repeatedly, attempted communication with Mayor Pangallo, trying to get an idea what funding would be available to Salem United, to manage Negro Election Day, if we were ordered not to obtain money. This was not the process from 2020 to 2023. I sent emails and letters, one requesting a signed receipt, which was signed by a city official, however, months passed, and communication continued to be ignored.

I attended the 387th Anniversary of the First Muster, Saturday, April 13, 2024, and seeing the mayor was present, I walked over to speak to him. I approached him as this seemed to be my only opportunity to speak to him. During our conversation, he announced, “he would not give Salem United, Inc. any money and the City had no funds.” He basically called me, Doreen Wade, “a liar” stating, “he never said we could not raise money”.

Question, “If the City did not have money for Salem United to manage Negro Election Day, why did the mayor state that Salem United, Inc. could not raise money, that we could not charge a vendor fee as all organizations do at their events, or why can’t we apply for grants?” Second, “Why is the mayor harassing this Black Led organization, while making other grant opportunities easier, to obtain, for other organizations, that are not black led?” Third, “Why does the Mayor and the City officials want to end Negro Election Day, using Salem United, Inc. as the scapegoat to do so?” “Was stopping our fundraising and grant opportunities the real plan to bury Negro Election Day?”

The December 6th meeting apparently angered the mayor and his staff. This anger began a trail of retaliation against Salem United, Inc. It started with breaking a written contractual agreement, for Salem United, Inc., to host a second Black History Month event, during the month of February 2024; and continued with the act of dismantling all our black cultural events, especially Negro Election Day.

The City of Salem, between 1998-1999, had a bad experience with this event when it was called Black Picnic or Salem Willows Black Picnic. Since then, there was no one in a leadership role for the festival. In 2015, the City of Salem Parks & Recreations Commission made a bad permit decision, with an entertainment performance, which was uncomfortable to the families who were attending. Young white men, who performed rap style entertainment, used the "N" word. So, the city challenged me to take it over and do better job. I accepted their challenge and reached out to the mayor, at the time, now, Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll and made it a formal agreement.

We were not a business, just 3 women who wanted to protect this black cultural event, which we knew the city wanted to dismantle. Probably hoping we would fail and would be blamed for wrong doings. Its, funny, in my Negro Election Day exhibit, I have a document from 1868. Imagine that, in 1868, the city wanted to stop Negro Election Day, in 2015, they wanted to stop it, and now, in 2024, they are using their governmental power to dismantle it. 156 years of hoping to exclude black history of this type. Yet, they celebrate the history of years of the lynchings and hanging of innocent people, especially those labeled witches; and uplift the men who established slavery with street names, landmarks and buildings all over downtown and the historical district of Salem.

I began to unmask the 284-year-old history of Negro Election Day, and its historical significance as the first democratic system; 35 years before the declaration of independent was signed. I learnt many of the men, who were called Black Kings or Black Governors, served in wars, such as the Revolutionary War, like Marblehead’s Joe Brown, who was called Black Joe. Those who served as members of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, and were held as P.O.W’s, like King Dick, in Great Britain’s famous prison, Dartmoor Prison, during the war of 1812.

In my 8+ years of working within the City of Salem’s administration, I have encountered push backs, limited support, years of no consistent funding, censorship, broken contracts, dismantling of Black cultural events, and other selective exclusion. But, through it all, I survived to work with one of the greatest women I know, Senator Joan Lovely of Essex County, on Bill S.2803, which was enacted by Republican Governor Charlie Baker, making Negro Election Day, a State Holiday, observed on the 3rd Saturday in July. I was successful at having the National Historical Registry declare it a National Historical Landmark. Yet, the city of Salem will not allow this history to: (a) be recognized on the Salem Heritage Trail, (b) allow historical signage, nor (c) admit there is a real policy for naming streets, within the Willows, so Salem United can have a street named to honor this Landmark of our black culture.

A dog could be abused and mistreated, and the world stops until justice is served, but when a 66-year-old black woman who, has suffered mental abuse and racial mistreatment, over a period of 8+ years, by the City of Salem’s administration; tells me a dog is more important than a black person, especially a golden aged black woman. A harsh statement this may be, but regardless of who I reach out to, from top Massachusetts state officials, black-led organizations and organizations that are supposed to protect us from these acts of hate, the harsh reality is, no one cares about the years of the racist and abusive acts in black Massachusetts cities and towns. Everyone says that the black vote is important, yet where is everyone now that the history of the black vote needs to be saved? Why doesn’t everyone question, why this Democratic Mayor feels empowered to dismantle anything the black community is doing?

Is the real reason this history needs to be dismantled is to ban Negro Election Day from the Massachusetts Anniversary celebrations, or Salem’s upcoming anniversary in 2026? Is it because the Democratic government does not want people to know that enslaved Africans were the first to start a democratic system in our country? Or because Negro Election Day State Holiday was enacted into law by Republican Governor?

I am a proud member of the Black race in American and I never thought I would be entangled in practices exercised by southern governments; for example, Ron DeSantis on whitewashing black history and discontinuing D.E.I practices in government and education. With our books banned, our celebrations cancelled, our legacies dismantled, what is next? A mayor who will implement gentrification practices of blacks in Salem, MA to where we are whitewashed completely away. I can not sit and watch our ancestor’s legacy, our community’s heritage and my mother’s labor of love get disassembled. As Dylan Thomas said, "Do not go gentle into that good night." That is why I am finally speaking out. Because I will not fulfill the city’s demand for me, Doreen Wade to be punished because I did not conform; in other words, this is not Roots, I am not a slave called Kunta Kinte whipped because I will not obey to their entitlements in order to preserve and protect. I will not accept, "if I do not allow the overseers of the plantation control, Negro Election Day’s legacy should die".

I must take a stand and say no more! If you and I continue to stay silent WE are saying – “YES…STOP NEGRO ELECTION DAY!”