For the first time, we are celebrating Juneteenth–also known as Freedom Day, Liberation Day, and Emancipation Day–as a federal holiday. It is the annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States.
Juneteenth dates back to June 19, 1865 when union soldier, Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with the news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were free. This announcement was more than two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Information and learning opportunities about Juneteenth abound – but we have gathered some books and articles here. The books below are available to borrow at York Public Library, and countless others are available through Inter-Library Loan. Click on a title to put a title on hold.
From the Library of Congress
- The Birth of Juneteenth; Voices of the Enslaved
- Ralph Ellison’s “Juneteenth“
- Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories
- Born in Slavery: Portraits and Narratives of Formerly Enslaved People
- Draft of the Emancipation Proclamation
- S.475 – Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, 117th Congress
