EVERETT — Dozens honored the life of a late leader of the Black community in Snohomish County on Saturday at the annual Nubian Jam Festival in Everett’s Forest Park.
Community members took part in a “second line” procession, a traditional funeral parade that originated in New Orleans, to honor Marylin Quincy, the founder of the Snohomish County Black Heritage Committee. She died June 4, age 81.
DanVonique Bletson-Reed, the president of the heritage committee, said Quincy was its matriarch.
“This was a phenomenal, mighty woman,” Bletson-Reed said in a speech Saturday. “It was just an honor to know her and be able to serve with her for the time I did.”
In 1993, Quincy founded the heritage committee and helped organize the county’s first annual Nubian Jam, a celebration of Black culture and history in the county. At a funeral with a group of friends, Quincy sought to create an event that connected community members during happier occasions, she previously told The Daily Herald.
On Saturday, attendees celebrated the event’s 33rd year.
“Miss Quincy and many others came together and said, let’s put something together where we can be in a safe space,” Bletson-Reed said. “We can play our music, we can dance, we can be merry, we can eat, we can love one another, we can celebrate one another.”
Quincy also served as the heritage committee’s historian. Her great grandfather is the namesake of the William P. Stewart Memorial Highway that runs through Everett. Stewart, who died in 1907, was a veteran of the Civil War.
In a proclamation, Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin said Quincy’s “commitment to justice, education and cultural preservation has left a lasting mark on Everett and inspired generations to come.”
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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