June 19, 2025 - Anastasia Curwood (Juneteenth) [ENCORE]

Behind the Blue

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 19, 2025) – THIS IS AN ENCORE EPISODE. On January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the ‘Emancipation Proclamation’, but it wasn’t until June 19th, 1865 that the last remaining enslaved African Americans – men and women in Galveston, Texas – learned they were free.

Since that time, June 19th, or “Juneteenth”, has been celebrated annually in various parts of the United States to commemorate emancipation as well as celebrate African-American culture. Still, it took until June 17th of 2021 for the day to be recognized as a federal holiday, after becoming more widely celebrated among African-American communities and gaining more and more mainstream attention in the US.

On this episode of Behind the Blue, we’re presenting an encore interview with Dr. Anastasia Curwood, director of The Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies (CIBS) and African American and Africana Studies (AAAS) at UK. In this conversation, originally from June of 2022, Dr. Curwood discusses the Juneteenth holiday, from her personal feelings and reflections on the significance of the day, to the importance of observance of the holiday by the university, and more.

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Behind the Blue is a joint production of the University of Kentucky and UK HealthCare. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.

For more information about CIBS, including ways you can support, visit https://cibs.as.uky.edu/.

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