A Message on the Significance of Juneteenth From Kenneth Holmes
Kenneth Holmes, senior vice provost for student life at UNH,Ìıreflects on the significance of Juneteenth. Also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 and announced the end of slavery, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
Holmes recalls growing up in Savannah, Georgia, as a descendent of slaves, "surrounded by the echoes of history."









































