In 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than 3.5 million enslaved people living in Confederate states to be “forever free.” It wasn’t until Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX, on June 19 two years later, however, that the enslaved first learned of their freedom. That date became known as Juneteenth, first celebrated in 1866, first declared a federal holiday in 2021. This book list is a Juneteenth commemoration in the form of fiction and nonfiction about its history and the long-standing implications of enslavement and the Jim Crow era.

Fiction

Bennett, Brit. The Vanishing Half. Riverhead. June 2020. 352p. ISBN 9780525536291. $14.11. HISTORICAL

Ellison, Ralph. Juneteenth (Revised). Vintage. May 2021. 416p. ISBN 9780593314616. $10.92. CLASSICS

Greenidge, Kaitlyn. Libertie. Algonquin. Mar. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9781643752587. $16.95. HISTORICAL

Jones Jr., Robert. The Prophets. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Feb. 2022. 416p. ISBN 9780593085691. $18. LITERARY

McQueen, LaTanya. When the Reckoning Comes. Harper Perennial. Aug. 2021. 256p. ISBN 9780063035041. $17. SOUTHERN GOTHIC

Nonfiction

Gordon-Reed, Annette. On Juneteenth. Liveright. May 2021. 152p. ISBN 9781631498831. $15.95. HISTORY

Hall, Rebecca. Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts. S. & S. June 2022. 224p. Illus. by Hugo Martinez. ISBN 9781982115197. $19.99. GRAPHIC MEMOIR

Darity Jr.,William A. & A. Kirsten Mullen. From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century. Univ. of North Carolina. Sept. 2022. 448p. ISBN 9781469671208. SOCIAL SCIENCE

River of Blood: American Slavery from the People Who Lived It: Interviews and Photographs of Formerly Enslaved African Americans. CityFiles Pr. Jan. 2020. 240p. ed. by Richard Cahan et. al. ISBN 9780991541850. HISTORY

Smith, Clint. How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. Little, Brown. June 2021.352p. ISBN 9780316492935. HISTORY

Selected by Matia Storey Edwards, media specialist at Griffin High School in Griffin, GA. She holds a specialist degree in instructional technology, media, and design from the Univ. of West Georgia. For 16 years, she worked in communications and marketing.