CSUSB will be closed on Wednesday, June 19, in commemoration of Juneteenth. The university’s San Bernardino and Palm Desert campuses will reopen for summer session classes and business on Thursday, June 20.

Although university operations are closed for the holiday, the campus will be the venue for the second annual Love4Us Juneteenth Freedom Celebration on Wednesday, June 19. The all-day event will feature entertainment by singer Goldie Woods, vendors, a kids’ zone and seminars, including one highlighting the academic pathway to prepare students for admission at CSUSB.

For more information, visit the Love4Us Juneteenth Freedom Celebration website.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day when federal soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take control of the state at the end of the Civil War and to ensure that slaves were freed. The troop’s arrival came more than two-and-one-half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Sept. 22, 1862, which declared slaves in the Confederate states as free people as of Jan. 1, 1863.

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation declaring June 19, Juneteenth, a federal holiday, and on March 22, 2023, the California State University Board of Trustees adopted a resolution designating Juneteenth as a university holiday.

To learn more, Cal State San Bernardino’s John M. Pfau Library has posted online a campus Juneteenth resources and reading list.