Cal State San Bernardino will be closed on Monday, June 19, in commemoration of Juneteenth, which celebrates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. The university’s San Bernardino and Palm Desert campuses will reopen for classes and business on Tuesday, June 20.

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 troop’s 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, and on March 22 this year, the California State University Board of Trustees adopted a resolution designating Juneteenth as a university holiday.

To learn more, CSUSB’s John M. Pfau Library has posted online a campus Juneteenth resources and reading list.