Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, but the enslaved in Texas were not freed until June 19, 1865, when federal troops came to Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth is now celebrated as Freedom Day. Early celebrations involved prayer and family gatherings. The post-Emancipation period, known as Reconstruction, was a time of hope, where African Americans sought to reunite with family members, run for public office and establish schools. Today, Juneteenth celebrates Black joy and the culture and contributions of African Americans.
Juneteenth Events
Bolingbrook’s 10th Annual Juneteenth Celebration
Saturday, June 15, noon–9 p.m.
Village of Bolingbrook Performing Arts Center, 375 W. Briarcliff Road
Joy the Village of Bolingbrook for an exciting day of food, fun and meaningful discussions. Learn more.
Show Way Family Mosaic
Wednesday, June 19, 6 p.m.
Families with Children in Grades K–5
As a family, create outdoor-safe mosaic squares inspired by quilt patterns that helped lead enslaved freedom seekers to safety. Registration required. Sign up now.
Juneteenth Reads for Children
Juneteenth Reads for Adults
Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue by Adrian Miller
Published: 2021
Call Number: 641.76 MIL
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Summary: Across America, the pure love and popularity of barbecue cookery has gone through the roof. Prepared in one regional style or another, in the South and beyond, barbecue is one of the nation’s most distinctive culinary arts. And people aren’t just eating it; they’re also reading books and watching TV shows about it. Adrian Miller, an admitted ‘cuehead and longtime certified barbecue judge, asks the question: Why do African Americans not get much love in today’s barbecue culture? In Black Smoke, he chronicles how Black barbecuers, pitmasters and restauranteurs helped develop this cornerstone of American foodways and how they are coming into their own today.
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
Published: 2021
Call Number: FICTION GREENIDGE
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Summary: Coming of age as a free-born Black girl in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson is all too aware that her mother, a physician, has a vision for their future together: Libertie will go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie feels stifled by her mother’s choices and is constantly reminded that, unlike her mother, Libertie has skin that is too dark. When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises she will be his equal on the island, she accepts, only to discover that she is still subordinate to him and all men. As she tries to parse what freedom actually means for a Black woman, Libertie struggles with where she might find it—for herself and for generations to come.
We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy by Natalie Baszile
Published: 2021
Call Number: 973.0496073 BAS
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Summary: In this impressive anthology, Natalie Baszile brings together essays, poems, photographs, quotes, conversations and first-person stories to examine Black people’s connection to the American land from Emancipation to today. In the 1920s, there were over one million Black farmers. Today, there are just 45,000. Baszile explores this crisis through the farmers’ personal experiences. In their own words, middle-aged and elderly black farmers explain why they continue to farm despite systemic discrimination and land loss. The “Returning Generation”—young farmers who are building upon the legacy of their ancestors, talk about the challenges they face as they seek to redress issues of food justice, food sovereignty and reparations.
Jim Crow: Voices from a Century of Struggle. Part One: 1876-1919: Reconstruction to the Red Summer, edited by Tyina L. Steptoe
Published: 2024
Call Number: 305.800973 JIM
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Summary: Powerful firsthand writings, from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 to the “Red Summer” of 1919, reveal the many ways Americans, Black and white, fought against white supremacist efforts to police the color line, envisioning a better nation in the face of disenfranchisement, segregation and widespread lynching, mob violence and police brutality.
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song, edited by Kevin Young
Published: 2020
Call Number: 811.0080896 AFR
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Summary: This wide-ranging anthology of Black poetry represents 250 famous and less-recognized poets from the colonial era to the present who used their powerful words to illuminate issues such as racism, slavery and the threatened African Diaspora identity.