Library: Juneteenth: Home

News and Articles

Juneteenth---The 155-Year-Old Holiday's History Explained
CNBC news article
What is Juneteenth?
A history of Juneteenth written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Juneteenth Independence Holiday---Here's What You Need to Know
Newspaper article from The Guardian
Local Voices Juneteenth
The South Seattle Emerald and Crosscut have published a great series of articles written by Black Seattleites about their experiences of Juneteenth.

History of Slavery

America and slavery developed side-by-side; their shared history was developed by edicts and constitutions as well as by the actions and reactions of individuals. Learn more about the history of slavery with this interactive timeline by THIRTEEN Media (PBS).

Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880 by W. E. B. Du Bois; Herbert Aptheker (Introduction by)
Call Number: E668.D83 1976
ISBN: 0527252808
Publication Date: 1976-01-01
A history of the part of which Black Folk played in the attempt to reconstruct Democracy in America.
The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward E. Baptist
Call Number: E441.B337 2014
ISBN: 9780465044702
Publication Date: 2014-09-09
Historian Edward Baptist reveals how the expansion of slavery in the first eight decades after American independence drove the evolution and modernization of the United States.
Africans in America America's journey through slavery
Call Number: Central Videos & DVDs E441.A37 2000 [DVD]
ISBN: 9781578075539
Publication Date: 2000
A four part series portraying the struggles of the African people in America. This series exposes the truth through surprising revelations, dramatic recreations, rare archival photography, riveting first-person accounts and defines the reality of slavery's past through insightful commentary.
The Price for Their Pound of Flesh by Daina Ramey Berry
Call Number: E443 .B446 2017
ISBN: 9780807047620
Publication Date: 2017-01-24
Groundbreaking look at slaves as commodities through every phase of life, from birth to death and beyond, in early America The Price for Their Pound of Flesh is the first book to explore the economic value of enslaved people through every phase of their lives--including from before birth to after death--in the American domestic slave trades. Analyzing the depth of this monetization of human property will change the way we think about slavery, reparations, capitalism, and nineteenth-century medical education.

Legacy of Slavery

The Prison-Industrial Complex and the Global Economy by Linda Evans; Eve Goldberg
Call Number: HV8925 .G65 2009
ISBN: 9781604860436
Publication Date: 2009-09-01
A look at the economic motives for continued, excessive imprisonment of individuals.
Rock My Soul by Bell Hooks
Call Number: E185.625 .H66 2004
ISBN: 0743456068
Publication Date: 2004-01-06
In Rock My Soul, world-renowned scholar and visionary bell hooks takes an in-depth look at one of the most critical issues facing African Americans: a collective wounded self-esteem that has prevailed from slavery to the present day.
Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston; Deborah G. Plant (Introduction by)
Call Number: E444.L49 H87 2018
ISBN: 9780062748201
Publication Date: 2018-05-08
Barracoon masterfully illustrates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all.

Seattle 2020 Juneteenth March

Visit King County Equity Now for more information.

Juneteenth Poetic Uprising

Visit Seattle Office of Arts & Culture on Facebook for more information

Remembering and Honoring Elders

Black Past
BlackPast.org is an online reference center makes available a wealth of materials on African American history in one central location on the Internet.

The Forging of a Black Community by Quintard Taylor; Norm Rice (Foreword by)
Call Number: F899.S49 N475 1994
ISBN: 0295973153
Publication Date: 1994-05-01
Through much of the twentieth century, black Seattle was synonymous with the Central District - a four-square-mile section near the geographic center of the city. Quintard Taylor explores the evolution of this community from its first few residents in the 1870s to a population of nearly forty thousand in 1970. Taylor argues that black Seattle was poised between two worlds, attempting to meld the values and traditions of its rural past with the requisites of modern urban-industrial society. Thus the community ethos was forged by the process in which the values of the rural, predominantly southern migrants - kinship networks, religious and folk beliefs, and sense of shared community - were transformed in the urban environment.
Seattle's Black Victorians, 1852 to 1901 by Esther H. Mumford
Call Number: F899.S49 N45
ISBN: 0960567003
Publication Date: 1980-10-01
Mumford’s landmark history provides a window into the lives of some of Seattle’s earliest African American citizens. Mumford is a leading authority on the history of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest and one of the founders of the Black Heritage Society of Washington State.

Learning through Fiction

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Call Number: PS3607.Y37 H66 2016
ISBN: 9781101971062
Publication Date: 2017-05-02
Homegoing follows the parallel paths of two sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Yaa Gyasi's extraordinary novel illuminates slavery's troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed--and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.
How Long 'Til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin
Call Number: PS3610.E46 A6 2018
ISBN: 9780316491341
Publication Date: 2018-11-27
In these stories, Jemisin sharply examines modern society, infusing magic into the mundane, and drawing deft parallels in the fantasy realms of her imagination. Dragons and hateful spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes. A black mother in the Jim Crow South must save her daughter from a fey offering impossible promises. And in the Hugo award-nominated short story "The City Born Great," a young street kid fights to give birth to an old metropolis's soul.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Call Number: PS3573.H4768 U53 2016b
ISBN: 9781524736309
Publication Date: 2016-08-02
As Whitehead re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day.

Writing on Freedom

How We Get Free by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (Editor)
Call Number: HQ1426 .H689 2017
ISBN: 9781608468553
Publication Date: 2017-12-05
In the last several years, Black feminism has reemerged as the analytical framework for the activist response to the oppression of trans women of color, the fight for reproductive rights, and, of course, the movement against police abuse and violence. The most visible organizations and activists connected to the Black Lives Matter movement speak openly about how Black feminism shapes their politics and strategies today.
The Meaning of Freedom by Angela Y. Davis; Robin D. G. Kelley (Introduction by)
Call Number: HN59.2 .D37 2012
ISBN: 9780872865808
Publication Date: 2012-08-14
What is the meaning of freedom? Angela Y. Davis' life and work have been dedicated to examining this fundamental question and to ending all forms of oppression that deny people their political, cultural, and sexual freedom. In this collection of twelve searing, previously unpublished speeches, Davis confronts the interconnected issues of power, race, gender, class, incarceration, conservatism, and the ongoing need for social change in the United States.
On the Other Side of Freedom by DeRay Mckesson
Call Number: E185.615 .M3535 2018
ISBN: 9780525560326
Publication Date: 2018-09-04
Continuing a conversation about activism, resistance, and justice that embraces our nation's complex history, he dissects how deliberate oppression persists, how racial injustice strips our lives of promise, and how technology has added a new dimension to mass action and social change

Juneteenth Across the Country

In 1980, Texas was the first state to establish Juneteenth as a state holiday. Now, many states observe Juneteenth as a state holiday or day of observance. From https://www.govinfo.gov/

Alabama 2011

Alaska 2001

Arizona 2016

Arkansas 2005

California 2002

Colorado 2004

Connecticut 2003

Delaware 2000

Washington D.C. 2003

Florida 1991

Georgia 2011

Idaho 2001

Illinois 2003

Indiana 2010

Iowa 2002

Kansas 2007

Kentucky 2005

Louisiana 2003

Maine 2011

Maryland 2014

Massachusetts 2007

Michigan 2005

Minnesota 1996

Mississippi 2010

Missouri 2003

Montana 2017

Nebraska 2009

Nevada 2011

New Jersey 2004

New Mexico 2006

New York 2004

North Carolina 2007

Ohio 2009

Oklahoma 1994

Oregon 2001

Pennsylvania 2011

Rhode Island 2013

South Carolina 2007

Tennessee 2007

Texas 1980

Utah 2016

Vermont 2008

Virginia 2007

Washington 2007

West Virginia 2008

Wisconsin 2009

Wyoming 2003

Political Action

By Any Means Necessary by Malcolm X; Steve Clark (Introduction by)
Call Number: E185.61.L577 1992b
ISBN: 9780873487542
Publication Date: 1993-01-01
The imperialists know the only way you will voluntarily turn to the fox is to show you a wolf. In eleven speeches and interviews, Malcolm X presents a revolutionary alternative to this reformist trap, taking up political alliances, women's rights, U.S. intervention in the Congo and Vietnam, capitalism and socialism, and more.
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin; Edward P. Jones (Illustrator)
Call Number: E185.61.B2 1984
ISBN: 0807064319
Publication Date: 1984-07-09
In an age of Black Lives Matter, James Baldwin's essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad are as powerful today as when they were first written. Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of that era. Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin probes the complex condition of being black in America.
When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors; asha bandele; Angela Davis (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9781250171085
Publication Date: 2018-01-16
Patrisse Cullors’ first book cowritten by ashe bandele, is a poetic memoir and reflection on humanity. Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have been called terrorists, a threat to America. But in truth, they are loving women whose life experiences have led them to seek justice for those victimized by the powerful. In this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience, Patrisse Cullors and asha bandele seek to change the culture that declares innocent black life expendable.

Remote library services will be unavailable on Friday July 17th and Friday July 24th due to the district wide furlough.

Juneteenth: Home

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Juneteenth

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