Come 5 p.m., as spurts from flying water balloons erupted on the lawn, Frank Moppins would be on its edge, at a booth crowded with lawn chairs.
Much of his family lounged there as they talked. Some, like his sister, Velma Ross, staffed the booth, selling sports drinks next to T-shirts bearing the name of the event they were volunteering at: Black Family Day, the city’s oldest running cultural tradition.
Framed by the Delta waterfront, hundreds of families like the Moppins showed up for the weekend-long event, established in 1969 as a way for Black families to come together. Always held on Labor Day, Moppins said the event used to signal the end of summer, at least when the kids returned to school back in September.
And while surrounded by family, it’d be the first Black Family Day Moppins and Ross would be without their mother, who had died at 100 earlier this year…