LibGuides: Juneteenth: Home

What is Juneteenth?

Juneteenth, a combination of June and nineteen, is a holiday celebrating June 19th,1865 when enslaved people in Galveston Texas found out two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued that they were free. Although the ratification of the 13th amendment in December later that year made slavery illegal, June 19th was when the last of the Confederate states were told of the proclamation.

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Take Action

Sign the petition to make Juneteenth a national holiday

Read: article on what you can do about racial injustice this Juneteenth

Read: Emancipation and Juneteenth

Read the original Emancipation Proclamation from the National Archives catalog
Discover more at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission Texas Remembers Juneteenth 2020
Juneteenth article by the Texas State Historical Association in the Handbook of Texas

Juneteenth : a celebration of freedom by Charles A.Taylor
ISBN: 1558494073
Publication Date: 2002
Describes Juneteenth's origins and meaning as well as the ways it has been celebrated throughout its history, and presents related documents including the Emancipation Proclamation and the lyrics to "Lift Every Voice and Sing," known as the African-American national anthem.
I freed myself : African American self-emancipation in the Civil War era by David Williams
ISBN: 9781107016491
Publication Date: 2014
"African Americans' Struggle for Freedom in the Civil War Era For a century and a half, Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation has been the dominant narrative of African American freedom in the Civil War era. However, David Williams suggests that this portrayal marginalizes the role that African American slaves played in freeing themselves. At the Civil War's outset, Lincoln made clear his intent was to save the Union rather than free slaves - despite his personal distaste for slavery, he claimed no authority to interfere with the institution. By the second year of the war, though, when the Union army was in desperate need of black support, former slaves who escaped to Union lines struck a bargain: they would fight for the Union only if they were granted their freedom. Williams importantly demonstrates that freedom was not simply the absence of slavery but rather a dynamic process enacted by self-emancipated African American refugees, which compelled Lincoln to modify his war aims and place black freedom at the center of his wartime policies."
Taste of Freedom: Juneteenth Celebration Cookbook by Elizabeth Jean Brumfield
Publication Date: 2018
Contributors to this book include the staff of the Prairie View A&M University, John B. Coleman Library. This book is published under Creative Commons and permits copying and downloading for educational purposes only. No parts of this book can be copied or reproduced for commercial
purposes. "This cookbook pays tribute to the Juneteenth celebrations past and present, held
in many states and some countries. We offer a view of our families traditional
recipes and secret ingredients."
Forever free : the story of emancipation and Reconstruction by Eric Foner, Joshua Brown
Call Number: E668.F655 2006
ISBN: 0375702741
Publication Date: 2006
Draws on a wide range of documents to offer a new interpretation of the Emancipation and Reconstruction years and the lasting impact they had on the nation's history.
Defining moments African American commemoration & political culture in the South, 1863-1913 by Kathleen Ann Clark
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0807856223
Publication Date: 2005
The historical memory of the Civil War and Reconstruction has earned increasing attention from scholars. Only recently, however, have historians begun to explore African American efforts to interpret those events. With Defining Moments, Kathleen Clark shines new light on African American commemorative traditions in the South, where events such as Emancipation Day and Fourth of July ceremonies served as opportunities for African Americans to assert their own understandings of slavery, the Civil War, and Emancipation--efforts that were vital to the struggles to define, assert, and defend
The Emancipation Proclamation : a brief history with documents by Michael Vorenberg
Call Number: E453 .V66 2010
ISBN: 9780312435813
Publication Date: 2010
Within months of Lincolns 1860 election, the Confederate states seceded and the Civil War began. In his inaugural address Lincoln vowed not to interfere with slavery and even endorsed a constitutional amendment to protect it. Yet two years later Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in the rebellious states, transforming the goals of the war, and setting the stage for national emancipation. In this volume Michael Vorenberg reveals the complexity of the process by which African-Americans gained freedom and explores the struggle over its meaning. The introduction summarizes the history and national debate over slavery from the country#x19;s founding through the Civil War and beyond, and more than 40 documents and images give voice to the range of actors who participated in this vital drama; Lincoln and Douglass, slaves and slaveholders, black and white men and women working for abolition, and northern and southern editorialists. In addition, essays by contemporary historians Ira Berlin and James McPherson argue the question of who freed the slaves. headnotes, a chronology, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography encourage student learning.
150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation : Emancipation Proclamation commemorative coloring book by United States National Archives and Records Administration
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0160916348
Publication Date: 2013
14 page coloring book available for free online with coloring pages that describe the emancipation proclamation on the 150th anniversary.

Archives and Resource Lists

Oregon Multicultural Archives: African American People and Culture

Extensive list of manuscript collections, databases,and African American history in Oregon and at OSU
Oregon Multicultural Archives (OMA) assists in preserving histories and sharing the stories that document Oregon's African American, Asian American, Latino/a, and Native American communities.

University of Oregon Black History Resources List

Collection of resources available through the University of Oregon Libraries, including databases, articles, youtube videos and materials and articles from Special Collections

BlackPast.org

Collection of resources on African American History
Full text primary documents and major speeches from the 18th Century to the present
Links to websites that address the global history of people of African ancestry including major black museums and archival research centers in the United States and Canada.

Oregon Black Pioneers

Historical society dedicated to researching, preserving, and presenting the African American history of Oregon
Hosts resources such as lesson plans, historical maps, presentations, and podcasts that address Oregon's Black History

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Juneteenth

Emancipation Celebration in Oregon

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What is Juneteenth?

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