06/19/2026
“Today, June 19, 2026, please join me in commemorating Juneteenth. A nationally designated holiday, Juneteenth celebrates the freeing of the last enslaved people in the United States, via Major General Gordon Granger’s General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, over two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
As luck would have it, I was in Washington, D.C., this past week to attend the presidents’ meeting of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, and I visited the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. The museum, which is set up to start on the bottom floor, in darkened rooms that mimic the bowels of the ships that carried slaves to the Americas, moves one through different exhibits that culminate, on the top floor, with a celebration of the contributions and achievements of Black Americans to American and world culture. It is a wonderful educational experience into the history and culture of the United States.
Much more could be said, but I want to stress the educational purpose of the museum, because it is through education that we can improve our understanding of others, and can begin to share in what is common about our humanity, rather than focusing on what is different. And education is about listening to and learning from others; empathizing with their often-harrowing experiences; reserving judgment until both sides have had an opportunity to express their viewpoint; and, finally, enriched from the experience, finding points of commonality, and advancing our knowledge through synthesis and expansion of our worldview.”
Valerio Ferme
President, NM State University
