Creating Wealth Legacy LLC presented “Juneteenth Representation Matters” on June 19 at Dumas Bay Centre to honor Federal Way’s Black residents and history.

Tirzah Idahosa, owner of Creating Wealth Legacy, said her company sponsored the event this year because she wanted to represent Black people in the community. Federal Way has raised the Juneteenth flag at City Hall every year, but Idahosa said Juneteenth celebrations should continue to get bigger.

“Representation matters. Past, present and future,” Idahosa said.

Juneteenth became a federal holiday on June 17, 2021. Juneteenth is observed every June 19, commemorating the freeing of about 250,000 Black people enslaved in Galveston, Texas, in 1865. Despite Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation two years prior, granting freedom to all enslaved people in the U.S., people in Galveston were the last to receive this news.

A photo of the plaques and awards that Tirzah Idahosa gave out at the June 19 event. (Photo by Joshua Solorzano/The Mirror)

The celebration in Federal Way included a panel about why representation matters and an award ceremony where Idahosa gave out eagle trophies to people she believes are doing great things in the community.

“We’re giving out eagles because everybody doing great things can’t be hawks and chickens,” Idahosa said. “An eagle is a special kind of bird. They have foresight, they’re not scared and they’re strong.”

One of the awards given was to John and Mary Conna. Despite John and Mary’s death over 100 years ago, Idahosa still wanted to honor them.

John Conna and his family were the first Black people to travel by train to Tacoma, settling at their 157-acre homestead in what would become Federal Way. In addition to this feat, he was the first African-American political appointee in state history when selected as Sergeant at Arms for the first Washington State Legislature in 1889. While in this position, Conna was a key contributor to the framing and passage of the Public Accommodations Act of 1890, which gave all citizens access to public establishments such as inns, theaters, restaurants and public conveyances.

Itayvion Gillespie reading a poem he wrote. (Photos by Joshua Solorzano/The Mirror)

“We are on a personal mission to make sure something is started with John and Mary Conna,” Idahosa said. “We would like to see something publicly named after them and then begin to honor other African Americans and people of color.”

A couple of guests honored at the event were Anthony and Marlie Love, two Seattle-based influencers running a Youtube channel called “Traveling While Black.” On their channel, they post videos where they visit different areas and rate how comfortable they feel as Black people visiting for the first time.

Anthony Love said they do this because there’s not a lot of Black representation in Washington state, where the population is majority white. They want to help Black people feel comfortable visiting new cities by seeing their experience.

“So it’s kind of like a modern-day Green Book,” Marline Love said, referring to the guide book that was published in the mid-20th century during the era of Jim Crow laws. “We have [visited] a lot of places in the Pacific Northwest, so people that are transient or Black people that live here right now can go to different places and actually feel comfortable and good.”

Attendees at the Juneteenth event including Itayvion Gillespie, Josias Jean-Pierre, Susanne Vargo and Kia McGlone. (Photo by Joshua Solorzano/The Mirror)