Notre Dame College is excited to announce that it has added the Juneteenth, June Nineteenth, federal holiday to its fiscal year holiday calendar.
The holiday first will be observed on Monday, June 20, 2022.
The College also is joining the City of South Euclid in offering a Juneteenth Freedom Day Celebration on Sunday, June 19, from 1-5 p.m. at Garfield Memorial Church, 1534 South Green Road. The free event will feature games, crafts, vendors, food, music and more.
This is the second year for the celebration in South Euclid. The event is presented by Garfield Memorial Church and the MyCom Youth Program in addition to the city and College.
In 2021 President Joe Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, creating June 19 as the national day to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. This is the first national holiday established since Martin Luther King’s Birthday in 1983.
Private institutions, like Notre Dame, have the opportunity to decide whether to observe federal holidays, whereas public colleges and universities are required to follow governmental boards of education. Independent institutions provide their own funding, while public schools are financed by the state.
Notre Dame is among the most diverse private colleges in the State of Ohio.
Juneteenth is deemed the earliest African American holiday in the U.S. It marks June 19, 1865, when, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, federal military entered Galveston, Texas, to ensure that all slaves were freed.
An overview of Juneteenth is available from the History Channel at https://www.history.com/news/what-is-juneteenth.
YouTube videos also are available to help explain the birth of the holiday:
- https://youtu.be/GdWerjHpBhI (Washington Post, 2021)
- https://youtu.be/qLnS4Bll62U (WHAS11, 2020)
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