LibGuides: Racial Justice and Advocacy: Juneteenth

Overview of Juneteenth

Dear NU Community,

In the United States, African Americans (descendants of enslaved Black people) recognize and celebrate the end of slavery on June 19, or Juneteenth.

It’s wonderful to hear that this day, long of importance to African Americans, is now a federal holiday. All Americans can celebrate the end of a system that denied freedom and basic human rights to so many.

On this day in 1865, the last group of enslaved Black Americans in Texas learned about the Emancipation Proclamation that President Lincoln had signed in 1863 as part of the strategy to win the Civil War, and about the passage of the 13^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which legally ended slavery.

Read much more about the significance of this historic day on the NU blog.

The Juneteenth celebration has evolved since its beginnings.

In 1865, newly freed people finally had a chance to reunite with family members separated by slavery. Imagine searching for a loved one, and all you had to go on was the memory of who your relative was sold to or the last place they were traded. Imagine reuniting with a child who was taken away from you as a punishment. This historic day brought with it the promise of family unity without the threat of further separation; a promise that Dr. Martin Luther King spoke about in August 1963.

Over the last 156 years, Juneteenth celebrations have included family gatherings, reunions, and barbeques. This year, there are festivals in metropolitan areas, cook-outs and barbeques, and virtual music and religious events planned across 47 states.

Juneteenth offers us a time to reflect on the challenge of resisting oppression, like when enslaved men, women, and children fled from enslavers to places like Fort Monroe, Virginia for their own liberation. It is a time to remember Black Americans who enlisted in the United States Colored Troops to fight for this country. It is a time to consider the problems we see around us now, like gun violence, securing our right to vote, policing, wealth and health disparities, and access to high-quality education.

As difficult as this country’s history is, we must be mindful to learn the lessons of the past, strive for a better today, continue the fight for equality, and hope for a greater future. Let’s celebrate this day and envision the next chapter of our American story.

Marie Bakari DBA, MSA, MBA
Associate Director of Faculty Development & Support in School of Business
Co-Chair, University Diversity Committee

Annabelle Goodwin, PhD, LMFT
Director of Equity and Inclusion / Faculty, SSBS
Co-Chair, University Diversity Committee

A note of thanks to Mr. Harvey Bakari and Mr. Benjamin Goodwin for their assistance with historical facts and perspectives.

Heinonline: Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, and Law Database Collection
This HeinOnline collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Our cases go into the 20th century, because long after slavery was ended, there were still court cases based on issues emanating from slavery. To give one example, as late as 1901 Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had to decide if a man, both of whose parents had been slaves, could be the legitimate heir of his father, because under southern law, slaves could never be legally married. The library has hundreds of pamphlets and books written about slavery—defending it, attacking it or simply analyzing it. We have gathered every English-language legal commentary on slavery published before 1920, which includes many essays and articles in obscure, hard-to-find journals in the United States and elsewhere. We have provided more than a thousand pamphlets and books on slavery from the 19th century. We provide word searchable access to all Congressional debates from the Continental Congress to 1880. We have also included many modern histories of slavery. Within this library is a section containing all modern law review articles on the subject. This library will continue to grow, not only from new scholarship but also from historical material that we continue to locate and add to the collection.

eBooks @ NU Library

Juneteenth Texas by Francis Edward Abernethy (Editor); Alan Govenar (Editor); Patrick B. Mullen (Editor)
ISBN: 9781574410181
Publication Date: 1996
Juneteenth Texas, Publications of the Texas Folklore Society #LIV, received a San Antonio Conservation Society award for the preservation of historic buildings, objects and places relating to the history of Texas and its natural beauty and all that is admirably distinctive of our state, and to educate the public with knowledge of our inherited regional values.
Act of Justice by Burrus M. Carnahan
ISBN: 9780813124636
Publication Date: 2007
In his first inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln declared that as president he would "have no lawful right" to interfere with the institution of slavery. Yet less than two years later, he issued a proclamation intended to free all slaves throughout the Confederate states. When critics challenged the constitutional soundness of the act, Lincoln pointed to the international laws and usages of war as the legal basis for his Proclamation, asserting that the Constitution invested the president "with the law of war in time of war."
Lincoln's Proclamation by William A. Blair (Editor); Karen Fisher Younger (Editor)
ISBN: 9780807833162
Publication Date: 2009
The Emancipation Proclamation, widely remembered as the heroic act that ended slavery, in fact freed slaves only in states in the rebellious South. True emancipation was accomplished over a longer period and by several means. Essays by eight distinguished contributors consider aspects of the president's decision making, as well as events beyond Washington, offering new insights on the consequences and legacies of freedom, the engagement of black Americans in their liberation, and the issues of citizenship and rights that were not decided by Lincoln's document. The essays portray emancipation as a product of many hands, best understood by considering all the actors, the place, and the time. The contributors are William A. Blair, Richard Carwardine, Paul Finkelman, Louis Gerteis, Steven Hahn, Stephanie McCurry, Mark E. Neely Jr., Michael Vorenberg, and Karen Fisher Younger.

Open Access Books

Juneteenth: Fact Sheet (Congressional Research Services)
Galveston on San Francisco Bay: Juneteenth in the Fillmore District, 1945–2016
This article explores the history of Juneteenth—the commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved people in Texas—in San Francisco, California. In 1945, Wesley Johnson, a Texan migrant, introduced Juneteenth to San Francisco's Black community. The celebration sustained itself over seventy years, making it the longest continuous urban celebration of Juneteenth. Juneteenth remained relevant in San Francisco because it became intertwined with the history of African Americans in the Western Addition neighborhood. Most significantly, the holiday was a key expression of resilience as the city demolished the neighborhood in the 1960s, expelling much of the Black community. Surprisingly, later in the 1980s, the holiday became a key point of contact between the city and the Black community.
Public Memory, Cultural Legacy, and Press Coverage of the Juneteenth Revival
Following the Civil War, African Americans in Texas celebrated their emancipation with an annual holiday known as “Juneteenth.” The celebration migrated to other areas of the country, and over the past several years there has been a concerted effort to establish it as a national holiday. Using the recent revival and diffusion of Juneteenth as its focal point, this article examines local press coverage of the celebration in four states. The coverage illustrates how journalists invoke history to explain current events and also highlights the changing, fluid nature of public memory. In contrast to the view of history as a fixed, stable account of past events, the evidence reveals that the historical record is continually changing based upon contemporary concerns, political motivations, and, in this particular case, the ongoing integration of African Americans into American society.

Racial Justice and Advocacy: Juneteenth

Overview of Juneteenth

eBooks @ NU Library

Open Access Books

Open Access Articles