FMU to host Juneteenth Celebration Saturday, June 15

Francis Marion University will host its annual Juneteenth celebration this Saturday, June 15 at the Leatherman Medical Education Complex in downtown Florence. 

The Juneteenth event, sponsored by the African American Faculty Staff Coalition, begins at 2:00 p.m. Dr. Bernard E. Powers, Jr. will be the speaker. Light refreshments will be served following the presentation.

Dr. Powers earned the Ph.D. in American History at Northwestern University. He is professor emeritus of history at the College of Charleston and the College’s founding director of the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston. His Black Charlestonians: A Social History 1822-1885, was designated an “Outstanding Academic Book” by Choice Magazine. Powers is co-author of We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel. Most recently, he has edited 101 African Americans Who Shaped South Carolina (USC Press, 2020). He was the founding president of the Charleston Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. In 2019, he received the Carter Godwin Woodson Scholars Medallion for his commitment to research, writing, and activism in the field of African American life and history.