Recommended “Juneteenth” Reading
Juneteenth, or June 19th, is the perfect opportunity to familiarize yourself with the holiday established to commemorate the ending of slavery in America.
By Cathy Billing
On June 19th, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger led troops into Galveston, Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln two and a half years prior. Many theories have circulated to explain the over two-year delay in the emancipation of Texan slaves after Lincoln’s Executive Order. According to Juneteenth.com, one story holds that the first messenger to deliver the news of freedom was murdered, while another story states that the news was deliberately withheld by slaveowners in the interest of maintaining a free labor force.
In celebration of Juneteenth, the South Pasadena Public Library is highlighting some resources from the Library of Congress as well as our own collections. For those interested in conducting research on the topic of American slavery, the Library of Congress has compiled an outstanding online research guide. We also recommend their rare audio interviews with former slaves, titled “Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories”. For those interested in print books, SPPL has several titles relevant to Juneteenth and narratives of slavery in America. Customers can use Library Takeout, a no-contact check-out/pick-up service to access library materials. For those who prefer eBooks, browse the Overdrive collections curated by the Library to explore the Black Lives Matter Movement for adults and teens.
Picture Books
- All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson.
Juvenile Fiction
- Come Juneteenth by Ann Rinaldi.
Juvenile Nonfiction
- Free at Last!: Stories and Songs of Emancipation by Doreen Rappaport and Shane W. Evans.
- Juneteenth by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and Drew Nelson.
Adult Nonfiction
- 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass.
- The Strange Career of William Ellis: the Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaire by Karl Jacoby.
- They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers.
- Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup.
Cathy Billings is the South Pasadena Library Director
Dear Cathy Billings,
A s a 52 year resident of South Pasadena, I was delighted to see that one of the adult non-fiction books you recommended for reading commemorating Juneteenth ending of Slavery was “The Strange Career of William H. Ellis : the Texas Slave Who Became A Mexican MIlionaire.”
It just so happens that WH Ellis is my great uncle, so you can’ imagine how surpeised and delighted I was to learn that his story is on display in the South Pasadena library.