This addition to the “What Was?” series provides a thorough introduction to the past and the present of Juneteenth. Text contains racism and disturbing imagery.
Kirsti Jewel is a former Bay Area school leader who recently accepted a role as the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at an independent school in Manhattan. She is a 2020 Kweli Fellow and she enjoys writing nonfiction for both children and adults. Her writing centers Black love, Black joy, and Black resistance
She currently lives in Biggie’s old neighborhood in Brooklyn with her dog, Trini, and their favorite thing to do is to open up the windows and listen to the music their neighbors are playing.
On June 19, 1865, a group of enslaved men, women, and children in Texas gathered around a Union soldier and listened as he read the most remarkable words they would ever hear. They were no longer enslaved: they were free. The inhumane practice of forced labor with no pay was now illegal in all of the United States. This news was cause for celebration, so the group of people jumped in excitement, danced, and wept tears of joy. They did not know it at the time, but their joyous celebration of freedom would become a holiday–Juneteenth–that is observed each year by more and more Americans.
Author Kirsti Jewel shares stories from Juneteenth celebrations, both past and present, and chronicles the history that led to the creation of this joyous day.
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