Mira Varghese
The University System of Maryland (USM) has taken a significant step in recognizing the past and present oppression of Black Americans with Chancellor Jay Perman’s announcement March 31 that Juneteenth will now be recognized as a holiday across all its institutions.
The holiday commemorates the emancipation of the last enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865. Because Juneteenth falls on a Saturday this year, the USM office and all its institutions and regional centers will observe it on Friday, June 18, according to the chancellor’s statement. Employees will be granted administrative leave.
University of Maryland President Darryll Pines announced in a campus-wide email March 31 that, in addition to granting employees administrative leave, summer session classes will be canceled June 18 in commemoration of the holiday.
Pines stated that he hopes this holiday will be a time of reflection for campus community members.
“Let’s use this time to reflect on both our history and recent events, and how we continue to work to eradicate anti-Black racism – and racism in all its forms – together,” he wrote.
While Juneteenth is a day to recognize that Black Americans are still oppressed by the lasting impacts of slavery, Kim Nickerson said it is important for everyone, not just Black students, faculty and staff. Nickerson is the assistant dean of diversity and a diversity officer at the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.
“Injustice to anyone is an injustice to everyone. And so everyone needs to understand this history. And they need to understand that the vile, immoral, inhumane institution of enslaving other people for financial benefit harmed everyone, and it did not go away with the snap of a finger,” Nickerson said.
He also said he hopes community members will reflect upon Maryland’s own history of slavery on the holiday. Nickerson stressed that during the Civil War, the state was a Confederate sympathizer and continued to allow slavery.
He noted also that Maryland failed to immediately emancipate its slaves upon the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. Maryland slaves were emancipated almost two years later on Nov. 1, 1864.
“We all shouldn’t gloat and say, ‘Well, look at us. We were Maryland. Look at those poor Texans; they were so backwards.’ Well, we didn’t do that much better. We were right here at the nation’s capitol and it took us one year and 10 months,” Nickerson said.
Saba Tshibaka, co-founder of Black Terps Matter, said she was glad to hear that USM will be observing Juneteenth. However, she said she wants to know what the institution and UMD will do to commemorate the holiday.
“Are they going to do anything on that day?” asked the senior philosophy, politics and economics major. “Are they actually going to say anything to uplift Black organizations, Black students? Are they going to give something to Black students … in the form of reparations?”
Tshibaka said that university administrators have a lot more work to do. She would like to see them use their platforms to highlight the issues that actually matter during the observation of Juneteenth, as well as take significant action to correct racial injustices.
“I would like to see them implement anti-racist actions in their system of the school,” Tshibaka said. “I want to see them do things like, for example, one thing would be like, coming together with the community on that day.”
Jehnae Linkins, president of the Black Graduate Student Union (BGSU) and a second year mechanical engineering doctoral student, said that Juneteenth should have been recognized as a holiday long ago, both nationally and on this university’s campus, especially because of the university community’s experiences with racial violence, including the killing of 2nd Lt. Richard Collins.
“As a Black American, liberation struggles still continue because people are still getting shot, Black people [are] still getting killed, things like that,” Linkins said. “So [the] university system is, I’m glad that they are, I guess, trying to move the pathway forward in terms of recognizing, you know, holidays and things like that, but it should have already been done.”
Linkins said the university as a whole should do something to observe Juneteenth, but she is unsure if that will happen, citing politics and a hesitancy to “single out one group” and its hardships as campus-wide issues. Regardless of what the university does, she said the BGSU, Black Student Union and Black Terps Matter will likely collaborate to organize an event.
While Linkins is glad USM and this university will be observing the holiday, she stressed that it does not put an end to the discrimination and oppression Black Americans continue to experience.
“You know the university system, academia, is not built for Black people. I’m the only Black person in my program, [the only] Black female engineer,” she said. “It’s just out of convenience to me… I mean I’m glad they’re doing it, but it could have been done earlier.”
Featured photo: The University of Maryland will observe Juneteenth as a holiday on Friday, June 18, granting administrative leave to its employees and cancelling all summer session classes. Mira Varghese/Stories Beneath the Shell