WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Center for Lincoln Studies will hold an online panel discussion on “Why Juneteenth: Remembrance and Reflection.” After the program, there will be a question and answer session with the panelists.

WHEN: Noon Thursday, June 17, 2021

WHERE: This program will livestream from the UIS Center for Lincoln Studies' Facebook page (facebook.com/UISLincoln) and YouTube Channel (go.uis.edu/UISLincoln).

DETAILS: Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day and Emancipation Day, is Friday, June 19, a holiday that is arguably as important to our nation as the Fourth of July, since it commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people of Texas, then the most remote region of the Confederacy, finally learned slavery had been abolished and that they were free.

The panel discussion will address big questions, such as: What is Juneteenth? Why should we remember it? How was it celebrated in the past? How is it celebrated now?

Panelists include Ken Page, president of the ACLU Illinois Springfield Chapter and former president of the Springfield NAACP chapter; Kathryn Harris, first African American and first woman to serve as the president of the Abraham Lincoln Association and currently serves on the ALPLM Board; Cherena Douglass, fundraising chair for the Faith Coalition for the Common Good; and Tiffani Saunders, UIS instructor of sociology and African American Studies.

For more information, contact Anne Moseley, acting director of the UIS Center for Lincoln Studies at 217-206-8663 or asutt4@uis.edu.