Celebrate Juneteenth

For the first time in its history, Southern Utah University is honoring the Juneteenth holiday with a weeklong celebration of freedom. This year’s theme, Juneteenth: A Past, Present, and Future American Celebration was chosen to invite all to learn and reaffirm the shared history and shared future of American communities, and to celebrate the progress made as a nation to fulfill the founding principle of freedom.

Commemorated annually on June 19, Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. Also known as June Nineteenth, Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, Liberation Day, or Emancipation Day, the holiday marks the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Texas to free the remaining enslaved African Americans. Though the Emancipation Proclamation was signed two and a half years prior, Juneteenth honors the official end of slavery in the United States.

The holiday has been celebrated by Black Americans since the late 19th century and is now commemorated and formally recognized on a national and state level. U.S. President Joseph R. Biden shared a recommitment to the work of equity, equality, and justice in the proclamation creating the national holiday on June 18, 2021. Utah officially declared Juneteenth a state holiday in March 2022.

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