Juneteenth Event Invites Community to View Reflective Student Art

Color oil painting of a Black man with glasses and a beard with a judges robe.

In observance of Juneteenth, The Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies, Georgetown University Library, and the Georgetown Women’s Alliance invite the Georgetown community, including students, faculty, and staff, as well as descendants of the GU272, to a community gathering where they will explore the exhibit “Facing Georgetown’s History through Art.” The event will take place on June 18 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The exhibition presents artwork by undergraduate students in Professor Adam Rothman’s History 099 class, which explored Georgetown’s historical connections to slavery and its ongoing Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation initiatives. During the program, participants will get to hear from and engage with some of the student artists. Refreshments will be served.

Juneteenth is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the ending of chattel slavery in the United States. Though the Emancipation Proclamation ordered that enslaved people be freed on January 1, 1863, Juneteenth marks the anniversary of Major General Gordon Granger ordering the final enforcement of the proclamation in Texas at the end of the American Civil War on June 19, 1865. Originally celebrated in Texas before spreading across the South and the country at large, the day was officially recognized as a federal holiday in 2021.

For more information about the event, contact Mary Beth Corrigan at mc248@georgetown.edu