Recently, Sinclair Community College announced Juneteenth would be a college holiday, meaning another day that students and faculty get to take time off. The federal government declared Juneteenth a federal holiday but it is not certain that local entities will recognize the holiday and give their employees time off.
Sinclair for quite some time has been planning on establishing Juneteenth as a college holiday and decided now was the time to do so.
“We were already ahead of the curve. This is something that has been on our radar for quite some time,” said Michael Carter, who runs Sinclair’s African American Exhibit located in the library. “Dr. Johnson and I had already been discussing making it a holiday despite it being recognized as a federal holiday,”
Sinclair’s president, Dr. Steven L. Johnson, and Carter weren’t the only ones to help make the decision. Other groups within the school were also in agreement.
“Ultimately board of trustees made the decision,” said Carter. “The president and his cabinet made the decision. We have a great board, and our president has been very supportive of equity and racial and social justice.”
Carter doesn’t know why more colleges haven’t set Juneteenth as a holiday but said: “We have a long journey ahead to which we are trying to make space for Juneteenth.”
Since Juneteenth is a federal holiday, businesses and even schools and other organizations would have to give their staff time off.
“Now it is a federal holiday, it’s the law. Now for local entities, they must decide to recognize it and give people a day off,” Carter said.
For students who may be interested in learning about Juneteenth, there are various resources they can use to learn about it.
“Come down to the exhibit, come down here and we will help. If they go down to the diversity office’s webpage, we got Ted Talks and more information about Juneteenth and they can do their research online,” Carter said.
Carter states the most important thing about Juneteenth is recognizing citizenship for all Americans. He says prior to Juneteenth, many Americans who fought in various wars were not considered American citizens. He argues that until 1965, many people still did not have rights. He encourages anyone who has doubts to do the research themselves.
When the news about Sinclair recognizing Juneteenth as a college holiday was announced, Carter says he was pleased and he expected Sinclair to make the holiday happen; that is just the kind of people at Sinclair are.
Regarding colleges in the Montgomery County area adopting Juneteenth, Carter said he can’t speak for those colleges but states it will be leadership that will determine if those colleges accept Juneteenth as a college holiday.
Jamario Brown-Tolliver
Intern