College Closed Friday, June 18

Thomas Nelson campuses in Hampton and Williamsburg along with satellite sites will be closed Friday, June 18 in observance of Juneteenth.

Juneteenth is an annual celebration that commemorates June 19, 1865, the day the last enslaved Americans in Texas learned they were free although the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed more than two years earlier. It is the oldest known commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States.

Governor Ralph Northam last summer announced his intent to make Juneteenth a permanent, paid state holiday and issued an executive order declaring the holiday.