Juneteenth

Juneteenth 2020 - Day of Remembrance and Reflection

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. This year, the day takes on even greater significance as the United States reckons with its racist past, the enduring legacy of slavery and works towards the dismantling of systemic racism to create a future of liberation for all.

We encourage you to declare Juneteenth a day of remembrance and reflection, a time to move beyond symbolic gestures in support of Black lives, and instead to genuinely reflect on what you can do to move the country and our campus toward its stated ideals of equity and justice.

Read Professor Kevin Dawson's Essay on "Juneteenth and 401 Years of American Freedom, 1619-2020"

Juneteenth Reflection - Nathan Brostrom, Interim Chancellor

A Message from Chioma Ndubuisi, Director, Project Management Office:

In the speech he gave the night before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that if he could choose any age in the history of the world in which to live, he would have chosen the times that he was living in. He told the audience gathered at Mason Temple Church of God in Christ in Memphis that they might find that strange, because as he put it, "things were all messed up." But all of the ages of time, he said he was happy to be alive then because "God was doing something."

“Well, I am excited to be alive in 2020 because God is doing something. A new world is being birthed (Romans 8:22), and we as the body of Christ are called to be "co-laborers" with God in helping to usher in this new creation. “ ---Pastor Joe Robinson

This may not be the vision that we’d hoped for this year, but it is the one we were given. I feel a shift and oppressive systems have run its course. The mountaintop is different for each generation even though we have parallels.

We are going to embrace this opportunity even if it frightens us or makes us uncomfortable and stand in LOVE and Service.

Sending angels and blessings your way.

Chioma

Keep Faith!