Past Juneteenth: A yearlong celebration of Black historical past, tradition and contributions

By Andy Ober,
College Communications

At this time

A yearlong celebration of Juneteenth is underway on the College of Arizona, with plans for audio system, instructional sources, and even digital actuality experiences to inform the story of Black folks within the Southwest.

The Juneteenth vacation, which falls on June 19 and was noticed on June 20 this yr, commemorates the arrival of Union troopers in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 – greater than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed – to announce that enslaved folks in Texas had been free.

In a message to the campus group earlier this month, President Robert C. Robbins introduced that the college will observe Juneteenth as a paid vacation starting in 2023.

In alignment with the college’s values, Robbins stated, the popularity of the vacation will likely be broad and sturdy.

“Our observance of Juneteenth will transcend marking this single historic day and can illuminate and rejoice the historical past of African People within the Southwest and the influence Black People have had in shaping our state and our area,” Robbins wrote.

The college has fashioned a committee to develop programming to focus on the importance of Juneteenth, educate concerning the historical past of Black folks within the Southwest and highlight the work being achieved by Black students at UArizona.

To that finish, the committee – co-chaired by Tyina Steptoe, affiliate professor of historical past, and Treya Allen, range, fairness and inclusion educational help coordinator within the Basic Schooling workplace – has developed a yearlong program known as Past Juneteenth.

“While you see Juneteenth, lots of people affiliate it with Blackness or enslaved of us,” Allen stated. “However past it being concerning the emancipation of enslaved Black of us, the final of them being in Galveston, Texas, it is actually concerning the notion of all humanity deserving freedom – level clean, interval.”

One of many preliminary Past Juneteenth efforts was the college’s sponsorship of the Tucson Juneteenth Competition, held June 18. The college additionally partnered with native radio station KXCI to provide storytelling segments from group members reflecting on Juneteenth and its legacy. The segments aired all through the day on June 18 and 19 and can be found on-line.

The college additionally held a digital panel dialogue – “Past Juneteenth: Attending to Know Black Arizona” – with Black students talking on the enjoyment and legacy of Juneteenth. Among the many matters was why it is necessary that Juneteenth be acknowledged not as only a vacation for the Black group.

“Once we take into consideration the abolition of American slavery, I feel that that is likely one of the most necessary moments in all of American democracy,” stated panelist Jerome Dotson, assistant professor within the Division of Africana Research. “It radically modified how we are able to see this nation. So, I feel if you happen to love America the way in which that possibly you say you do, then you must love Juneteenth.”

Daybreak Demps, assistant professor within the Division of Academic Coverage Research and Follow, stated it is necessary for your complete nation to grasp the struggles of Black folks previously to allow them to “perceive why it’s we rejoice in a recognition of Juneteenth.”

The panel additionally included Michael Johnson, assistant professor within the Division of Immunobiology, and Obenewaa Oduro-Opuni, assistant professor within the Division of German Research.

The yr forward

A lot of the programming the committee is engaged on will deal with the historical past and legacy of Black folks within the Southwest.

“Typically when you concentrate on Black folks, you concentrate on city conditions like New York or LA, or you concentrate on the South,” stated Celeste Atkins, assistant director of school mentoring initiatives within the Workplace of the Provost and a member of the Past Juneteenth committee. “However African People have an unlimited, wealthy heritage within the Southwest, which is the place I grew up, and we do not usually hear about that.”

Black historical past has vital ties to many facets of historical past which are thought of inherently Southwestern, Atkins says, together with cowboy tradition, rodeos and lumberjacking.

Atkins says the committee is engaged on creating partnerships with institutes and organizations together with the Pima County Public Library, native church buildings and the Dunbar Pavilion, an African American arts and tradition middle, to create studying lists and useful resource guides and supply speaker alternatives to focus on Black historical past and contributions  of African People within the Southwest.

For instance, Bryan Carter, affiliate professor within the Division of Africana Research, is working with Arizona Heritage Excursions to create digital actuality simulations so folks can expertise what the Arizona territory was like for Black residents within the 1800s, Atkins stated.

General, the objective is to assist folks perceive that African American historical past is a part of American historical past.

“Now we have fallen brief by making this distinction that African American historical past is separate from American historical past,” stated Denise TrimbleSmith, undertaking director within the college’s Workplace of Range and Inclusion and Past Juneteenth committee member. “That may be a fallacy. African American historical past is American historical past.”

The committee expects to launch a web site together with cultural and historic sources, occasion listings and extra within the coming weeks.

“If we do something of value by this yearlong undertaking,” Allen stated, “I consider what is going to present from it’s the willingness to have extra folks come to the desk and say, ‘Can I add to that?’ In the end, that is our objective.“