Honoring Juneteenth
June 14, 2023
Dear Stony Brook University Community,
This coming Monday, June 19, classes will not be in session, and academic and administrative offices will be closed in honor of Juneteenth. Wherever you are, I hope you can take advantage of the holiday weekend by spending time with loved ones, reflecting, and learning.
Although the Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom to enslaved people throughout the Confederate States on January 1, 1863, real freedom came sporadically. While many who were enslaved escaped during the war, widespread liberation only came to each region with the arrival of U.S. troops who could enforce the law. Juneteenth marks the day when Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston–Texas was the last holdout Confederate state–and posted an order that read: “All slaves are free.”
Juneteenth has been celebrated in Galveston and throughout Texas for more than 150 years, and it has long been an important African American celebration of identity. It has grown in popularity and changed in step with the African American experience in this country. And yet before it was made a federal holiday in 2021, many Americans were unaware of the significance of Juneteenth due to a too-often biased understanding of our nation’s history. We see this pattern continuing today, as legislation is passed in multiple states that suppresses diverse voices and thwarts educators’ abilities to teach a full picture of our history.
As I reflect on the meaning of Juneteenth, I can’t help but think of the story of Isabella Gibbons, who, until the Union Army proclaimed freedom in Charlottesville in March of 1865, was owned by a professor at the University of Virginia. Her husband, William, was owned by another professor at the school. Both of them and more than a hundred others were forced to labor in the care of the faculty and the students at the university.
Although it was generally forbidden, Isabella and William learned to read and write, teaching their children the same skill. When freedom came, Isabella continued her education at the Freedman's School in Charlottesville and later became its first African American teacher, a position she held for nearly twenty years. William became a prominent minister first in Charlottesville and eventually in Washington, D.C.
The dissemination of information is a critical tool in this country. It can mean the difference between life and death, liberty and subjugation. This Juneteenth, Stony Brook reaffirms its commitment to academic freedom, diversity of thought and experience, and ensuring that diverse voices are heard. Knowledge is power. So much so that in 1845, the formerly enslaved abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass contended that “once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
There is not, of course, one universal history. Our story as a country is indebted to myriad different individuals, groups, and experiences. But it is our duty and our privilege to push for as full and honest a picture as possible. The celebration of Juneteenth—a monumental moment for the freedom of African Americans—is essential to this picture.
Sincerely,
Maurie McInnis
President