Loyola will observe Juneteenth as an annual university holiday for the summer semester, according to an email from Tania Tetlow, university president. The university will observe it on Monday, June 21 due to Juneteenth falling on a weekend this year.

Juneteenth is an annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

It celebrates the event where Union soldiers physically liberated the thousands of enslaved people in Galveston Texas on June 19th, 1865 more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation and several months after the Civil War had ended, according to Tetlow.

“Juneteenth celebrates a moment of joy, but it also reminds us of the terrible road that lay ahead for millions released from bondage with only the clothes on their backs,” Tetlow said.