Juneteenth is observed on June 19 to celebrate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Please see the titles below to learn more about this important holiday and its ongoing significance.
On Juneteenth by
The essential, sweeping story of Juneteenth's integral importance to American history, as told by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Texas native. Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth provides a historian's view of the country's long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond. Combining personal anecdotes with poignant facts gleaned from the annals of American history, Gordon-Reed shows how, from the earliest presence of Black people in Texas to the day in Galveston on June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger announced the end of legalized slavery in the state, African-Americans played an integral role in the Texas story. On Juneteenth is both an essential account and a stark reminder that the fight for equality is exigent and ongoing.
Publication Date: 2021
Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008 by
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., gives us a sumptuously illustrated landmark book tracing African American history from the arrival of the conquistadors to the election of Barack Obama. Informed by the latest, sometimes provocative scholarship and including more than seven hundred images --ancient maps, fine art, documents, photographs, cartoons, posters-- Life Upon These Shores focuses on defining events, debates, and controversies, as well as the signal achievements of people famous and obscure. Gates takes us from the sixteenth century through the ordeal of slavery, from the Civil War and Reconstruction through the Jim Crow era and the Great Migration; from the civil rights and black nationalist movements through the age of hip-hop to the Joshua generation. By documenting and illuminating the sheer diversity of African American involvement in American history, society, politics, and culture, Gates bracingly disabuses us of the presumption of a single "black experience."
Publication Date: 2011
Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America by
Long Time Coming grapples with the cultural and social forces that have shaped the United States in the brutal crucible of race. In five beautifully argued chapters --each addressed to a black martyr from Breonna Taylor to Rev. Clementa Pinckney--Dyson traces the genealogy of anti-blackness from the slave ship to the street corner where George Floyd lost his life-- and where America gained its will to confront the ugly truth of systemic racism. Ending with a poignant plea for hope, Dyson's exciting new book points the way to social redemption.
Publication Date: 2020
A Black Women's History of the United States by
A vibrant and empowering history that emphasizes the perspectives and stories of African American women to show how they are--and have always been--instrumental in shaping our country. In centering Black women's stories, two award-winning historians seek both to empower African American women and to show their allies that Black women's unique ability to make their own communities while combating centuries of oppression is an essential component in our continued resistance to systemic racism and sexism.
Publication Date: 2020
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History. Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era. As a young man Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery. Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass spoke widely, using his own story to condemn slavery. By the Civil War, Douglass had become the most famed and widely travelled orator in the nation. In his unique and eloquent voice, written and spoken, Douglass was a fierce critic of the United States as well as a radical patriot. After the war he sometimes argued politically with younger African Americans, but he never forsook either the Republican party or the cause of black civil and political rights. In this "cinematic and deeply engaging" (The New York Times Book Review) biography, David Blight has drawn on new information held in a private collection that few other historian have consulted, as well as recently discovered issues of Douglass's newspapers.
Publication Date: 2018
Freedom: A Photographic History of the African American Struggle by
This momentous volume chronicles a photographic history of the African American struggle for freedom, combining a unique assimilation of rare images with thought-provoking scholarly analysis. This photographic journey of the African American struggle for equality begins with abolitionists like Harriet Tubman, who after escaping slavery in 1849 helped others to freedom, and continues to the twenty-first century.
Publication Date: 2002
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by
The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society. In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. In shedding light on this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose racist thinking. In the process, he gives us reason to hope.
Publication Date: 2016
How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by
This compelling #1 New York Times bestseller examines the legacy of slavery in America -- and how both history and memory continue to shape our everyday lives.
Publication Date: 2021
