Inaugural University of Chicago Juneteenth Commemoration

The inaugural UC Juneteenth 2021 initiative comes in the wake of a global pandemic that exposed widespread health inequities in marginalized communities, political tumult, demand for an end to police brutality, and an overall resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement. It is thus fitting that this political celebration of Black freedom and emancipation commences this year. This celebration, originally observed in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 commemorates the announcement of General Order No.3 proclaiming the end of slavery for bondsmen throughout the United States. To understand what this celebration means and represents to students at the University of Chicago in particular, we must acknowledge the history of the institution.

The University of Chicago as we know it today does not exist independently from centuries of forced labor and economic extraction from enslaved African Americans. In 1857, Stephen A. Douglas, slave-owner and politician, donated 10 acres of land, valued today at approximately $1.2 million, which was leveraged to gain more funds for the initial construction of the University of Chicago. Thus, the University’s founding donor actively supported slavery and used monies derived from slave labor to endorse the creation of the University of Chicago. Although this contribution was used to create what is now considered the “Old University of Chicago”, the new 1890 campus was inextricably tied to the academic, architectural, social, and economic legacies cultivated in the original Bronzeville campus.

Like other pre-Civil War institutions with a legacy, the University has worked to address its history by supporting the entrance of diverse candidates as well as initiating a number of efforts to support the South Side community. Some of the efforts have included the Odyssey Scholarship— a scholarship that aims to eliminate loans for students whose family income is less than $75,000. Efforts also include the UChicago Promise program, which provides enrichment programs to talented youth from traditionally underserved backgrounds. Other initiatives include the Chicago Public School Educator Award Scholarship, which grants a full scholarship to students whose parents work as educators in the Chicago Public Schools. Commendable as they are, these initiatives may unintentionally mask the reality that these efforts are not enough to remedy past wrongs – we need to also actively dismantle the historical threads that persist today in ever-evolving forms.

Alone, these initiatives are not enough to support the recruitment, retention and inclusion of diverse students. The 2016 Campus Climate Survey revealed that 59% of Black identifying students believed the overall institution to be racist with 43% of students rating their proximal climate as racist. This reality reveals a stark chasm between the lives of Black and non-Black graduate students, and signals a need to further conversations on institutional racism and support the expansion of Black-inclusive events, spaces, and celebrations. Though some believe the University’s historical ties to slavery have little bearing on the present institution, late University of Chicago professor Michel-Rolph Trouillot reminds us that “the past does not exist independently from the present”. Thus, the vestiges of an inherently racist past may still remain in unimagined ways if not called into focus, acknowledged, and addressed through intentional change.

The UC Juneteenth 2021 initiative is an effort to center these issues, and serves as a call to action for us to do our part as members of this institution to engage in anti-racist advocacy. For many non-Black graduate students, a lack of anti-racist engagement more likely reflects inertia than resistance, allowing a critical mass of non-Black graduate students to coast through graduate school without paying heed to these issues.

UC Juneteenth 2021 is organized by the UChicago Graduate Council, in collaboration with the Black Grad Coalition and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. We aim to achieve two missions. First, we aim to create an inclusive environment that centers and affirms Black-identifying students, particularly those who identify as American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS). Second, we plan to promote inquiry and critical thinking through race and racism with a goal of increasing knowledge and awareness of different perspectives and lived experiences. To realize these goals our programming includes allyship and anti-racist seminars, Black community building through arts and shared narratives, a Juneteenth book club, a “Do the Work Campaign” in partnership with Brave Space Alliance, and a keynote address by political activist and philosopher Angela Davis. The official UC Juneteenth site includes the full program list and registration information for each event.

The events geared toward the achievement of our first goal, promotion of inclusivity, were planned with the knowledge that the University of Chicago is situated on the South Side of Chicago— an epicenter of Black culture and history. We realized that a campus-wide celebration of Juneteenth could only elevate that rich heritage that already exists surrounding our institution and help the general Black student body share in this in a culturally affirming way. Further, we hoped to create spaces that centered the Black-identity so that students, staff, and faculty could share experiences, build community, and celebrate each other in ways that are historic to the celebration of Juneteenth.

The guiding principle behind our second goal embodied our institutional motto— crescat scientia; vita excolatur, let knowledge grow from more to more; and so human life be enriched. Following our institutional philosophy of diversity and inclusion, we understand that “different backgrounds, viewpoints, and perspectives… are the building blocks that make rigorous inquiry possible”. By hosting lectures and panels on the History of Juneteenth, Reparations, Allyship and Anti-racist training, and The Black Graduate experience at UChicago we aim to increase knowledge of Juneteenth. In celebrating this historically overlooked holiday, we seek to promote rigorous inquiry into topics of race and racism. To the latter point, we seek to focus on how these issues exist within the walls of our institution to begin envisioning ways to effectively dismantle them.

Although most of history remembers founding donor Stephen A. Douglas for his political career, the humans that he owned and amassed his fortune from have a starkly different recollection. As we move forth in our inaugural celebration of Juneteenth, we must not forget that while generations of White students enjoyed the privilege of inquiry at the University of Chicago, generations of enslaved Black folks labored without access to education at the institution their labor helped create. With this in mind, we believe it necessary to commemorate this holiday and urge future committees to continue to do the same. We recognize that there is still much work to be done to promote the full participation of all people at the University and we find this celebration to be a vital component of that work.