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Juneteenth

This guide has been created as a companion for the On Juneteenth virtual book discussion, as well as to share resources about Juneteenth.

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What is Juneteenth?

Juneteenth Flag

"Juneteenth, an annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, has been celebrated by African-Americans since the late 1800s.  On June 19, 1865, about two months after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Va., Gordon Granger, a Union general, arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved African-Americans of their freedom and that the Civil War had ended. General Granger’s announcement put into effect the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued more than two and a half years earlier on Jan. 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln. The holiday received its name by combining June and 19. The day is also sometimes called 'Juneteenth Independence Day,' 'Freedom Day' or 'Emancipation Day.'"

--Derrick Bryson Taylor, What is Juneteenth?, The New York Times

Important Note

On this guide we have included some resources that we recommend, but are not available at MCPHS.  For these resources, we have set up the links to redirect to the Boston Public Library, as many members of the MCPHS community are able to use their resources.  If you are not able to use the Boston Public Library, feel free to find these resources at your own library!

Want to sign up for a Boston Public Library eCard?  Learn to do so here. Not eligible for a Boston Public Library eCard? Find these items in your local library in WorldCat.

Books

Juneteenth Texas
Four Hundred Souls
The 1619 Project
Envisioning Emancipation
Festivals of Freedom
Stony the Road
How the Word Is Passed
On Juneteenth
A Black Women's History of the United States
Juneteenth
The Warmth of Other Suns
The Fire Next Time
Juneteenth
We Were Eight Years in Power
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Sweet Taste of Liberty
Monument

Online Resources

Multimedia

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