{"id":582,"date":"2020-06-17T13:52:57","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T17:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sw.edu\/news\/?p=582"},"modified":"2020-06-17T13:52:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T17:52:57","slug":"juneteenth-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sw.edu\/news\/2020\/06\/17\/juneteenth-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"Juneteenth Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Governor Ralph Northam announced<\/strong><\/a> he is proposing legislation to make Juneteenth, celebrated June 19, \u00a0an official state holiday. In accordance with the Governor\u2019s direction that all executive branch state offices close for Juneteenth, \u00a0Southwest Virginia Community College will be closed on Friday, June 19, 2020<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those unfamiliar with Juneteenth, it celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. It is also known as Emancipation Day, Juneteenth Independence Day, and Black Independence Day. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, TX, and announced the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery. Although the Emancipation Proclamation came 2\u00bd years earlier on January 1, 1863, many slave owners continued to hold their slaves captive after the announcement, so Juneteenth became a symbolic date representing African American freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.\u201d
– President Abraham Lincoln<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Additional resources:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n