Nationwide, Institutions Prepare to Celebrate and Educate on Juneteenth

While the holiday itself falls on Wednesday, June 19, the teams at the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC), a consortium of seven, two-year, public institutions serving the city, are already hard at work preparing for their Juneteenth celebrations.

“Juneteenth marks our country’s second Independence Day,” said David A. Sanders, president of Malcolm X College, a CCC institution on the west side of Chicago. Celebrating the holiday as a college “means everything,” he added.

David A. Sanders, president of Malcolm X College in Chicago.“We are a community anchor and have a direct impact on the communities we serve,” said Sanders. “It is always important that we translate the importance of events to the next generation, so we encourage everyone to talk about the significance of Juneteenth.”

The day has its historical roots in Texas, just south of Houston. On June 19, 1865, those enslaved in the state were freed when Union troops arrived at Galveston Island. It has been nationally recognized as a holiday since a 2021 declaration by President Joe Biden. But the makings of a national Juneteenth holiday took decades of pressure from activists and policy makers. Now, institutions across the U.S. are finding ways to celebrate the holiday and connect it with other critically important issues within the Black community.

Malcolm X’s Juneteenth celebrations start bright and early on Saturday, June 22 and feature events that target community health, wellness, justice, economic development, education, and even features a blood drive. The day was created in partnership with Cook County and its 2nd District Commissioner Dennis Deer.

While the Saturday gathering will be for the whole community, internal CCC events will happen on Tuesday, June 18. Nearby institutions Wilbur Wright College and Harold Washington College will host a reflection ceremony and an afternoon viewing and discussion of the movie “Miss Juneteenth,” a 2020 drama about a pageant hosted at a historically Black college.

On the West Coast, The California State University (CSU) will host its second biennial livestream events, June 13-14. Speakers include Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of the ground-breaking 1619 Project and Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Boston University Center for Anti-Racist Research, and others. The events will begin in the morning and run through the afternoon on both days.