TU offers pause, shares resources on Juneteenth

June 18, 2020

Towson University will honor Juneteenth by canceling classes and observing an administrative day on Friday. Juneteenth will be observed as an annual university holiday beginning in 2021.

Juneteenth is considered the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the freeing of enslaved people.

On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with the news that the Civil War was over and the Emancipation Proclamation had been enacted.

In her campus message TU President Kim Schatzel said, “More than a century and a half later, on this Juneteenth, it has never been more clear than this moment in our history how much work still remains. So it is important that we not only pause to acknowledge structural and persistent inequities of our past but also to recommit ourselves as a community and as individuals to a future free of oppression, racism and violence.”

President Schatzel encouraged the TU community to use resources compiled by the Office of Inclusion & Institutional Equity, including readings, educational resources, webinars and community engagement opportunities in the surrounding area.

“Let us use this time to reflect, to continue learning and to seek ways to be leaders through this historic period of change,” said Schatzel.

This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel’s priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland and Diverse and Inclusive Campus.