chief diversity officer
Celebrating and Reflecting: Pride And Juneteenth
Franklin Pierce Community: PRIDE JUNETEENTH Imagine that you and your progeny had been kidnapped from your home, imprisoned, forced into brutal labor, and systematically (and legally) stripped of your humanity for more than 400 years – simply because of the color of your skin. Now, imagine learning that you had been released from that prison-like existence two years after the judge had ordered your release – but your jailers never told you. On June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas with an announcement of freedom for former slaves, two years following the Emancipation Proclamation and codified in the 13th Amendment.. Juneteenth – also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and Emancipation Day – celebrates this emancipation which marks the day that all those who had been enslaved were finally free. Today, African-Americans commemorate this date as our Independence Day from legalized slavery. Some descendants of formerly enslaved peoples conduct a pilgrimage back to their southern ancestral roots to commemorate the date, while others celebrate with prayer, feasting, and familial gatherings. As we’ve seen in recent years, true freedom is measured by the degree to which we enjoy all the rights and treatments of full citizenship. The right to vote unabridged by race or color. The right to be secure in our own persons through the promotion of equal justice. The unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As we commemorate this day of Independence, let us continue to work toward true liberty and reflect on the words of Frederick Douglass, who shared that freedom is “the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action”. I invite you to learn more about Juneteenth and promoting equality in justice by visiting the Manchester, N.H. NAACP website, by connecting with and joining our A.L.A.NA. and Justice in Action Athletic Alliance groups on the Franklin Pierce University campus, or by contacting the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Yours Always in Peace, Pierre V.C. Morton, Ed.D, MBA, SHRM-CP (he, him, his) |
THE MLK IN YOUMLK in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. In 1944, Morehouse College, then known as Augusta Baptist Institute, admitted a promising young man to their academic ranks named Martin Luther King Jr. No one could have imagined that this “ordinary student” would influence, inspire and change the trajectory of our nation and world in his 39 short-lived years. This week marks both the federal holiday celebrating Dr. King and the time when colleges and universities across the country hold the sixth annual National Day of Racial Healing. |
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