Juneteenth came just a little bit early to the Pea Island Cookhouse Museum in Manteo this year.
For the past three years, Manteo native Tshombe Selby, a lyric tenor who sings with the New York Metropolitan Opera has brought his talent to the little museum on the west side the town to help celebrate Juneteenth.
This year, his schedule made it difficult for him to be at the celebration on Monday—the official Juneteenth—but today worked you well.
This may have been his finest performance yet. Beginning with a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that had to be heard to understand how marvelous it was, Tshombe performed a much wider range of songs than he has in the past.
This year his selections included the classic spiritual performed with his operatic voice, but he also brought some more modern selections to the performance. And he was outstanding with the songs.
But there still something about the classic Oh, Freedom with the definitive lines, “before I'd be a slave,I’d be buried in my grave…” Especially sung with the power and ability to bring emotion to his performance that Tshombe does that makes the song even more powerful.
The day is a celebration of Black history in the United States and one of the surprise announcements for the day was came from the National Park Service and Fort Raleigh which is on the north end of Roanoke Island.
Fort Raleigh is undertaking a major project that will create a Freedman’s Colony trail. Although there is almost no evidence left of the Freedman’s Colony that at one time housed some 3000 recently freed slaves, the Roanoke Island Freedman’s Colony was one of the first established. It is known that it occupied the land that is now underneath the airport and Aquarium, but every few artifacts have been found.
According to Isabel Gonzalez who is gathering family stories and other information, Fort Raleigh is planning a 1.2 mile trail.
It’s summer on the Outer Banks and there is so much happening from Corolla to Hatteras. With rentals available from the north end of the Outer Banks to the tip of Hatteras Island, Brindley Beach Vacations will have the perfect home away from home.