Juneteenth Reads

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Friday, June 19th, is Juneteenth, and also known as, Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, or Freedom Day. 

Historic black-and-white photograph featuring two Black women, dressed in elegant white attire and large decorative hats, seated in a floral-adorned horse-drawn cart pulled by a white horse
Martha Yates Jones (left) and Pinkie Yates (right), daughters of Rev. Jack Yates, in a decorated carriage parked in front of the Antioch Baptist Church located in Houston's Fourth Ward, 1908. (Source: Houston Public Library Digital Archives)

The holiday commemorates the day in 1865 that the last enslaved African Americans held in Galveston, Texas learned of their freedom, two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Long celebrated within the African-American community, the day became federal holiday starting in June 2021.

We invite you to explore the Library's Juneteenth "ebookshelf" featuring a selection of ebooks that explore this history behind this holiday, with a particular focus on the voices and stories of enslaved Black people in the United States and the fight for freedom.

Access the bookshelf at tiny.cc/JuneteenthEbookshelf