On Juneteenth

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The important, sweeping story of Juneteenth’s integral significance to American historical past, as advised by a Pulitzer Prize–profitable historian and Texas native.

Weaving collectively American historical past, dramatic household chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth supplies a historian’s view of the nation’s lengthy street to Juneteenth, recounting each its origins in Texas and the large hardships that African-Individuals have endured within the century since, from Reconstruction by way of Jim Crow and past. All too conscious of the tales of cowboys, ranchers, and oilmen which have lengthy dominated the lore of the Lone Star State, Gordon-Reed―herself a Texas native and the descendant of enslaved folks delivered to Texas as early because the 1820s―forges a brand new and profoundly truthful narrative of her house state, with implications for us all.

Combining private anecdotes with poignant info gleaned from the annals of American historical past, Gordon-Reed exhibits how, from the earliest presence of Black folks in Texas to the day in Galveston on June 19, 1865, when Main Normal Gordon Granger introduced the top of legalized slavery within the state, African-Individuals performed an integral function within the Texas story.

Remodeling the normal “Alamo” framework, she powerfully demonstrates, amongst different issues, that the slave- and race-based economic system not solely outlined the fractious period of Texas independence however precipitated the Mexican-American Warfare and, certainly, the Civil Warfare itself.

In its concision, eloquence, and clear presentation of historical past,
On Juneteenth vitally revises typical renderings of Texas and nationwide historical past. As our nation verges on recognizing June 19 as a nationwide vacation,
On Juneteenth is each a necessary account and a stark reminder that the struggle for equality is exigent and ongoing. 2 black-and-white illustrations