A Summer of Remembrance

May 22, 2025

Dear campus community,

Next Monday, May 26, CSU will be closed in observance of Memorial Day. In relatively quick succession, we will celebrate two more federal holidays this summer. We will observe Juneteenth National Independence Day on Thursday, June 19 and Independence Day on Friday, July 4. I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge how these three summertime holidays allow us to remember and celebrate the brave acts committed and the sacrifices made in the quest for freedom. 

Memorial Day was originally “Decoration Day” in the years following the American Civil War. This was to be a day for “decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land,” as described by Commander in Chief John Logan in 1868. In 1971, the United States commemorated its first official Memorial Day, and the day was expanded to recognize all armed service members who have passed.

Next month, we will recognize our nation’s newest federal holiday, Juneteenth. On June 19, 1865, the last remaining group of enslaved people in the United States were freed, and so this holiday commemorates the end of slavery in America and the enduring spirit of Black Americans. The 2021 proclamation establishing this federal holiday referred to Juneteenth as “a day in which we remember the moral stain and terrible toll of slavery on our country” and also “a day that reminds us of our incredible capacity to heal, hope, and emerge from our darkest moments with purpose and resolve.” If you aren’t planning Juneteenth festivities of your own, take a look at the fantastic line-up of events for Cleveland’s Juneteenth Freedom Fest.

While the exact date of America’s Independence Day is in celebration of the Second Continental Congress’s approval of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the holiday is also a recognition of the self-evident truths stated in that document: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” In the years following our nation’s founding, leaders have used Independence Day as an opportunity to remind us of the weight of these words. 

Frederick Douglass, 14 years after he escaped slavery, delivered a keynote address on Independence Day in 1852. In his remarks, he asked his audience, “Are the great principles of freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” And in 1876, during the nation’s centennial, suffragist Susan B. Anthony delivered these remarks at Independence Hall: “…we cannot forget, even in this glad hour, that while all men of every race and clime and condition have been invested with the full rights of citizenship under our hospitable flag, all women still suffer the degradation of disfranchisement.” This day reminds us that we must continue our long journey in pursuit of that “more perfect Union.”

During each of these holidays, in addition to gathering with family and friends, I encourage you to use these days as opportunities to learn more — about the civics, culture and history of this great nation; the individuals whose actions secured and continue to secure the freedoms that define our nation; and the events and traditions in our communities that coincide with these holidays. 

Sincerely,

Laura Bloomberg, PhD
President