Dear Marietta College Community:
Marietta College will recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday and campus will be closed on Monday, June 20, 2022. The day commemorates the end of slavery in the United States by honoring the events of June 19, 1865, when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African Americans that they were free and the Civil War was over.
Celebrations marking the historic day began among Black Americans in Texas the following year and spread to other states and cities around the country. Observers marked the occasion with celebratory family gatherings and religious and secular rituals, including the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1980, Texas became the first state to declare Juneteenth an official holiday.
Now the entire U.S. recognizes it as a holiday.
The College’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion will have an on-campus celebration from 4:00-7:00 p.m., Friday, June 17th, outside of the Hermann Fine Arts Center. I encourage everyone to attend.
I also hope you will use Monday as a day to reflect on this important moment in our nation’s history and Americans, particularly the Black Americans, who have fought so hard to push this country toward realizing its utmost standards.
Sincerely,
Bill Ruud
President and Professor of Management