Combining history and memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth presents a moving history of African-American life and culture through the prism of Juneteenth. The award-winning Harvard historian offers an intimate portrayal of her family’s experiences and memories of life as an African-American girl growing up in segregated Texas. Her book’s collected essays invite readers into a world shaped by the forces of freedom and slavery.
Reed’s exploration of the history and legacy of Juneteenth is a poignant reminder of the harsh history that all Americans face.
“Freedom! African American Emancipation Day”
“Freedom! African American Emancipation Anniversary” by William H. Wiggins Jr. is the historical standard on African American Emancipation Anniversary. The book provides an accessible, meticulously researched account of the emergence and development of Juneteenth.
Wiggins combines oral history and archival research to tell the story of how African Americans celebrated emancipation and explains why Juneteenth is part of a tapestry of emancipation anniversaries that also include January 1 in North Carolina, April 3 in Richmond, Virginia, and April 16 in Washington, DC.
Juneteenth celebration in San Francisco, 2022. (Liu Yilin/Getty Images)
What began as a local holiday has evolved into a national celebration.
Juneteenth is known for a variety of programs and events that highlight African-American history and culture. In the 1960s, students at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, told faculty that they would not hold classes on Juneteenth. In Milwaukee, a group of Black Cowboys ride horseback down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in the local Juneteenth parade. Juneteenth also features cultural fairs and exhibits, arts performances, and historical reenactments. Lectures, public discussions, community feasts, and religious events are also part of the celebration.
“Juneteenth”
Perhaps best known for his novel The Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison paints a multifaceted portrait of the meaning of Juneteenth in African-American and American life in his posthumously published novel Juneteenth.
Ralph Ellison’s novel “Juneteenth” was published posthumously. (Getty Images)
Juneteenth brings with it an ambivalent feeling of freedom delayed but not denied. Ellison’s novel illustrates this through the intertwined and tragic lives of the racist Senator Sun Raider (formerly known as Bliss) and his pastor, Reverend AZ Hickman. For Ellison, Juneteenth is more than a celebration of liberation; it also represents the shared destiny of white Americans and African Americans as they strive to create a just and equal society. The hopes and perils of Juneteenth are beautifully captured in Hickman’s words: “There have been many Juneteenths before, but there will be many more before we are truly free!”
“Celebrating Freedom: Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, 1808-1915”
Mitch Kachun’s book, Celebrating Freedom: Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, 1808-1915, traces the history of Emancipation Celebrations and their impact on African American identity and community. Juneteenth joins a long tradition of Emancipation Celebrations. These celebrations include the celebration of the end of the transatlantic slave trade in the United States on January 1, 1808, and the August 1st/West Indies Day celebrations, which commemorated the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire on August 1, 1834.
With an eye for historical detail, Kachun tells the complex history of how Juneteenth and other freedom celebrations shaped African American identity and political culture. Celebrations also signaled competing meanings of African American identity. In late 19th-century Washington, DC, different African American groups held their own celebrations. These differences highlighted tensions over political ideals, status, and identity. Kachun’s book reminds us that Juneteenth was a testing ground for forging African American senses of community and conflict.
Emancipation Day celebrations in Austin, Texas, 1900. (Austin History Center)
“August 1st Rites: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World”
Like Kachun’s book, Howard University historian Jeffrey R. Carr Ritchie’s “August First Rites: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World” reminds readers of the broader history and geography of Emancipation Day.
Carr Ritchie focuses on how different African-American communities adopted and adapted West Indies Day celebrations and explores how they created meaning and culture in celebrating the abolition of slavery in the British West Indies. Carr Ritchie’s book details how these celebrations spread across political and national boundaries.
“Juneteenth: The Story Behind the Celebration”
Modern Juneteenth devotionals often ignore the nation’s military history.
Edward T. Cotham Jr.’s “Juneteenth: The Story Behind the Celebration” fills that void by exploring Juneteenth’s Civil War origins.
Cotham clearly paints a military backdrop leading up to the events in Galveston on June 19, 1865, when enslaved Black people finally received news of their emancipation more than two years earlier. Cotham reminds readers that the history of Juneteenth involves the everyday actions of many individuals whose names are less well known.
Collectively, these books about Juneteenth offer fresh perspectives on African American history and culture as they strive for the full expression of freedom. Juneteenth is a call for all Americans to continue to learn about and work toward freedom for all people.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
