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Today we celebrate a pivotal moment in American history—the emancipation of enslaved Black people in the United States. Understanding Juneteenth Although the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863, its enforcement was limited in regions still under Confederate control. According to the Smithsonian and the Congressional Research Service, many enslavers deliberately withheld information about the proclamation, continuing to enslave people despite its declaration. It wasn't until the Thirteenth Amendment was enacted on January 31, 1865, that all enslaved Black people in Texas and other Confederate states were formally freed by executive decree. June 19, 1865, marks the day when Major General Gordon Granger, accompanied by approximately 2,000 Union soldiers, arrived in Galveston, Texas, to proclaim the end of both slavery and the Civil War.  The Importance of Juneteenth Juneteenth is now a federal holiday that celebrates African-American freedom and honors the endurin...

Remembering Louie Crew by Shane Olsen  As we celebrate Pride Month this June at the UWSP Archives, it’s an opportune time to reflect on our collections and consider how well they capture the history of LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff at UWSP. While we hold several collections detailing the LGBTQ experience on campus, this history is often fragmented and incomplete. These gaps can be partly attributed to the hostility LGBTQ individuals have faced both on campus and in the community over the years. Due to the constant threat of harassment, many in the LGBTQ community may not have felt safe creating and sharing records that would later become part of UWSP’s historical record. Traditional archival practices often exclude LGBTQ histories. Archival theorist Terry Cook explains that archivists historically were not trained to actively seek out records to include in their institutions’ collections. Rather, archivists were instructed to simply accept records as they were transferred fr...