On the third Saturday of July, as has been the custom for decades, crowds converge on Salem Willows Park for an event with history tracing back to the 1700s. It’s an annual tradition with deep roots, treasured by many and unfamiliar to many more.
The Negro Election Day celebration features an educational component, a parade, live music, games, and general family-oriented revelry and reunions.
The tradition has gone by other names in the past, the most common of which was “Black Picnic.” But Doreen Wade prefers the designation that salutes its historical significance as an early chapter in the story of Black voting in this country. Wade is president of the event’s organizer Salem United Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Black history.
Some of the specifics of the history can differ based on time and place. But 1741 marks the first recorded reference to the holiday in Massachusetts. In New England, white enslavers occasionally allowed Black people held captiveto gather for celebrations; a tradition developed in which enslaved Black people and free Black people got together and elected from within their ranks a man to serve as a leader. Sometimes the leader held the title of king or governor. In some areas, the Black leaders were expected to settle issues within the Black community. In certain circumstances, Black kings and governors may also have served as liaisons to white leadership.
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