When President Hayes began his tenure at the College of the Mainland in 2001, he observed that Juneteenth was not being celebrated. He met with the Multicultural Team and asked that they include Juneteenth as one of the celebrated events on campus.
The first celebration of Juneteenth at College of the Mainland was held the following year, June 2002. President Hayes greeted a capacity crowd in the College of the Mainland Student Center and Alex Pratt, a Professor in the Social & Behavioral Sciences Department, spoke on the theme The History of Juneteenth.
Pictured right, President Hayes and Debra Duncan at the 2007 Juneteenth Celebration
Excerpts from President Hayes’ greetings:
“We are so pleased to see all of you at the first Juneteenth Celebration at College of the Mainland. I appreciate all of you. One of my concerns in talking with many people was that there wasn’t an understanding of what this thing “Juneteeth” was. I kept hearing that. So this is our opportunity to learn and become better informed about a very important day, particularly since it started in Galveston County. That makes it even more important that we celebrate and enjoy each other’s company, as we celebrate. It is my great pleasure at this time to introduce our speaker who has stepped forward and volunteered to give us this information so we are better citizens and better community members. So join me in welcoming Alex Pratt, a Professor in History and well qualified to give us this speech. Thank you all.”
See our Juneteenth @ COM album, all currently available COM History photos or go to our COM History Guide for more COM History.
Go to our Juneteenth & Emancipation Guide to learn more about Juneteenth.
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