Cal State San Bernardino will host its inaugural Juneteenth Celebration on Monday and Tuesday, June 13-14.

The celebration starts with an in-person event, the viewing of “Juneteenth: A Celebration of Overcoming,” from noon-1:30 p.m. Monday, June 13, at the Santos Manuel Student Union North Conference Center D. The viewing is sponsored by Associated Students Inc. of CSUSB. Snacks will be provided.

“ACT: Advancing Black Student Access & Success at CSUSB,” a roundtable discussion, will take place from noon-1:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 14, on Zoom. The program will be moderated by Rafik Mohamed, CSUSB provost. Join the event at this Zoom page.

In addition, the John M. Pfau Library has posted online a campus Juneteenth resources and reading list to learn more about the celebration.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day when federal soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to take control of the state at the end of the Civil War and to ensure that slaves were freed. The troops arrival came more than two-and-one-half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Sept. 22, 1862, which declared slaves in the confederate states as free people as of Jan. 1, 1863.

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation declaring June 19, Juneteenth, a federal holiday.

The campus events serve as a complement the California State University’s two-day inaugural Juneteenth Symposium, “By Any Means Necessary: Honoring the Voices of our Ancestors and​ Everyday People,” scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, June 15-16 and hosted by CSU Dominguez Hills. The symposium will be livestreamed both days; registration is required.

CSUSB Juneteenth 2022