4 books to help you learn the history of Juneteenth

The United States celebrates Juneteenth, the country’s newest federal holiday, on June 19. This date commemorates the emancipation of all enslaved people across the country; however, the history of the abolishment of slavery in the United States is a tangled web of politics and war, with the people most affected often the last to be considered.

On January 1, 1863, in the third year of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed those enslaved people held in Confederate states. Two years later, in January of 1865, the 13th Amendment was passed by Congress, abolishing slavery across the U.S. But it wasn’t until months after the 13th Amendment passed that notice of the end of slavery reached the farthest corners of the country. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger traveled to Galveston, Texas to announce the end of the Civil War, and with it, the end of slavery. The 19th of June – Juneteenth – came to be celebrated, first in Texas, then across the U.S., as the nation’s second Independence Day. President Biden declared Juneteenth an official federal holiday in 2021.

As you celebrate this Juneteenth, Google Books has resources to offer at no charge for shared reflection with your friends and family.

Juneteenth today

Juneteenth is a multifaceted holiday drawing on all the complexities of history as well as modern-day issues in the U.S. Together we celebrate the perseverance and indefatigable spirit of enslaved African Americans and the generations of families that were born of their courage.