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91���� University celebrated Juneteenth with a special art activity designed to inspire a dialogue about Black freedom in the United States.

Black Freedom through my Eyes took place on June 16 in the Student Union’s Apollo Room.

Each participant created a painting that demonstrated their vision of Black freedom, then took part in a conversation about that vision.

“It’s an opportunity for us to recognize people of the African American, Black community,” said Quatez Scott, the intercultural specialist in 91����’s Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center. “We really want to set ourselves up at 91���� University to be examples of leaders who are proactive of these measures and not just reacting to what’s going on in society.”

The Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center and the Division of Student Affairs organized the campus event to commemorate the holiday of Juneteenth.

Also known as Freedom Day, Juneteenth is the oldest national commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth commemorates the anniversary of the day in Galveston, Texas, when Africans in America learned they had earned their freedom. The announcement came on June 19, 1865, more than two months after the end of the Civil War and more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.