06/19/2026
The Clayton State Library joins the nation today in celebrating Juneteenth.
Juneteenth, or Freedom Day is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. This holiday is considered the longest running African-American holiday and has been called America's second Independence Day.
Interested in learning more about this holiday and connected events, stories and people? Check out these resources :
~Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom - Streaming media available through Academic Video Online
~A Black American is troubled by the legacy of American slavery and the misuse of Christianity to justify it. He travels throughout Texas, discovering how Juneteenth reveals faith and a fight for freedom in an unjust society.
~Envisioning emancipation : Black Americans and the end of slavery - Print book in the Library's circulating collection
~In this pioneering book, renowned photographic historian Deborah Willis and historian of slavery Barbara Krauthamer have amassed nearly 150 photographs--some never before published--from the antebellum days of the 1850s through the New Deal era of the 1930s.
~Digital Juneteenth: Territorializing the Freedom Colony Diaspora. Scholarly article available online in the September 2022 issue of Public Culture
~Researchers leveraged communication technology like social media platforms to facilitate the exploration, preservation, and sharing of Black narratives and histories and create senses of community and place.
~On Juneteenth - Print book available in the Library's circulating collection
~Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed provides a historian's view of the country's long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since
Access these and more resources from the library's homepage: clayton.edu/library
