Today we reflect upon the significance of Juneteenth, a date marked and celebrated as the African American Independence Day. To learn more about this event, its history and significance, and for more about the Black Freedom Struggle, especially in the 19th century, consider reading some of the following books:

Freedom Celebrations

Festivals of Freedom: Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, 1808-1915 by Mitch Kachun

Defining Moments: African American Commemoration and Political Culture in the South, 1863-1913 by Kathleen Ann Clark. See my full review here.

O Freedom! Afro-American Emancipation Celebrations by William H. Wiggins, Jr.

Freedom: Proclaimed, Seized, and Longed for

Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation by John Hope Franklin

Freedom’s Women: Black Women and Families in Civil War Era Mississippi by Noralee Frankel

Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America by Martha S. Jones

Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America by W. Caleb McDaniel (winner of Pulitzer Prize in History, 2020)

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America by Allen Guelzo

Black Military Experience – Civil War

Like Men of War by Noah Andre Trudeau

The Sable Arm by Dudley Taylor Cornish

Louisiana Native Guards: The Black Military Experience during the Civil War by James Hollandsworth

Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder by Kevin Levin

Milliken’s Bend: A Civil War Battle in History and Memory by Linda Barnickel (this website)

After the Glory: The Struggles of Black Civil War Veterans by Donald R. Shaffer

Reconstruction Era

Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B. Du Bois

The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution by Eric Foner

Reparations – History

My Face is Black is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations by Mary Frances Berry

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