With the upcoming celebration of Juneteenth, the recognition and honoring of the day news of the end of slavery officially reached all of the United States, proper education becomes a crucial element in ensuring the day receives the proper respect it deserves.
Whether you learn best from reading, listening to a podcast, or even watching a film, here is a list of resources that can help you better understand and celebrate the holiday of Juneteenth.
While the Emancipation Proclamation given by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 declared all slaves free, it did so only in the rebellious Confederate states. It then took two years following the original declaration that slavery was actually abolished on June 19, 1865 -- Juneteenth.
This list of resources digs further into the history of Black people in America, the period before Juneteenth and the years following.
Books:
- Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
Ibram X. Kendi gives a comprehensive history of race in the United States split into five time periods: 1415-1728. 1743-1826, 1826-1879, 1863-1963 and 1963-today. The book itself focuses on overlooked stories and figures to illustrate the development of racist ideas and the origins in America. The 2016 National Nonfiction Book Award Winner has also been adapted into a version for younger audiences -- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You.
- The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
The Pulitzer-Prize winning author shares the untold story of the “Great Migration,” also known as the “Black Migration,” a period in which six million African Americans moved out of the Southern United States between 1916 and 1970 into cities like Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington D.C, creating rich cultural, social and political communities of their own.
- How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
In his book Clint Smith makes the argument that history is told through the perspective of the victors, examining eight topics in United States History to reckon with the idea of who we thought we were and what is remembered.
- On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
Historian Annette Gordon-Reed utilizes a series of short stories and essays to tell the journey it took for Major General Gordon Granger to announce the end of legalized slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865.
Podcasts:
- History of Juneteenth, NPR
An oral history of Juneteenth and the events that took place on June 19, 1865 when legal slavery ended in Texas, thus marking the end of enslavement in all of the United States.
- Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories
Through a series of 23 episodes, recordings from 1932 to 1975 of Freed Black Americans retelling their stories are retold for the first time in an auditory format, telling the stories of life as an African American in the United States from 1860’s to the 1930’s and beyond.
- Into America
Hosted by Trymaine Lee, each episode looks at the reality of being Black in America and what it means to “hold truth to power and hold this country to its promises.”
- Black Wall Street 1921
The episodic podcast told by Nia Clark tells the story of life before, during and after the Tulsa Race Massacre that resulted in the death of as many as 300 Black Americans and destroyed 35 square blocks of the town.
Films:
- 13th
The Netflix Documentary from Ava DuVernay explores the “intersection of race, justice and mass incarnation in the United States.” The title references the 13th amendment to the United States Constitution abolishing slavery except as punishment for a crime.
- I Am Not Your Negro
Based on the unfinished manuscript for James Baldwin’s Remember This House the documentary looks at the history of racism in the United States through the eyes of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers and their lives and subsequent deaths.
- Black-ish “Juneteenth”
Episode one of Black-ish’s season four shows patriarch of the family, Dre Johnson, teaching his children about the under-celebrated holiday of Juneteenth through flashbacks and song.
