June 19, widely celebrated as Juneteenth, is a day of remembrance to commemorate the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas were finally notified of their freedom. It has been officially designated as a holiday at Wichita State University and will be celebrated beginning this year.
The announcement comes as the holiday gains popularity across America. President Joe Biden recognized Juneteenth as a federal holiday in 2021; and earlier this year, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced it as a state holiday. Now Wichita State, along with the other Kansas Board of Regents institutions, will close offices and not hold classes each June 19.
“As we celebrate Wichita State’s first official Juneteenth holiday in 2024, it’s my hope that we reflect on the significance of this day in our shared history,” says WSU President Rick Muma.
On June 19, 1865, about two months after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Va., Gordon Granger, a Union general, arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African Americans of their freedom and that the Civil War had ended. General Granger’s announcement put into effect the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued nearly two and a half years earlier, on Jan. 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln.
The holiday is also called “Juneteenth Independence Day,” “Freedom Day” or “Emancipation Day.”
