• Celebrity
    • OTE – Screen Kings
    • Daniel Kaluuya Digital Cover
    • Digital Cover Method Man
    • Digital Cover Zazie
    • Celebrity News
    • ‘Yes, Girl!’ Podcast
    • Entertainment
    • Black Celeb Couples
    • Celebrity Moms
    • Red Carpet
    • If Not For My Girls
  • Fashion
    • ESSENCE Fashion House 2022
    • Fashion News
    • Street Style
    • Accessories
    • Fashion Week
  • Beauty
    • Best In Black Beauty 2023
    • ESSENCE Hair Awards 2022
    • AVEENO Skin Health Startup Accelerator
    • Beauty News
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
  • Hair
    • Hair News
    • Natural
    • Relaxed
    • Transitioning
    • Weave
    • 4C
  • Love
    • Love & Sex News
    • The Solve Podcast
    • Weddings
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
  • Lifestyle
    • Black History Month
    • ESSENCE Gift Guide 2022
    • ESSENCE + smartwater Live Well Challenge
    • Build Your Legacy 2022
    • Dream & Plan with Confidence Prudential
    • AMEX Platinum Travel
    • Homecoming Season 2022
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Money & Career
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Black Travel Guide
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Raise Your Voice
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Video
  • Festival
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2022 Fest Videos
  • Events
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2022 Girls United Summit
    • 2022 ESSENCE Fashion House
    • 2022 Homecoming Season
    • She Got Now
    • Dear Black Men
    • I Am Speaking
    • Power Tools
  • Studios
  • Girls United

WHERE BLACK CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS MEET

Sign up for ESSENCE Newsletters the keep the Black women at the forefront of conversation.

Your email is required.
Your email is in invalid format.
Confirm email is required.
Email did not match.
Select the newsletters you'd like to receive:
Please select at least one option.
By clicking Subscribe Now, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Skip to content
SUBSCRIBE
  • MAGAZINE
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Celebrity
    • OTE – Screen Kings
    • Daniel Kaluuya Digital Cover
    • Digital Cover Method Man
    • Digital Cover Zazie
    • Celebrity News
    • ‘Yes, Girl!’ Podcast
    • Entertainment
      • The State Of R&B
    • Black Celeb Couples
    • Celebrity Moms
    • Red Carpet
    • If Not For My Girls
  • Fashion
    • ESSENCE Fashion House 2022
    • Fashion News
    • Street Style
    • Accessories
    • Fashion Week
  • Beauty
    • Best In Black Beauty 2023
    • ESSENCE Hair Awards 2022
    • AVEENO Skin Health Startup Accelerator
    • Beauty News
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
  • Hair
    • Hair News
    • Natural
    • Relaxed
    • Transitioning
    • Weave
    • 4C
  • Love
    • Love & Sex News
    • The Solve Podcast
    • Weddings
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
  • Lifestyle
    • Black History Month
    • ESSENCE Gift Guide 2022
    • ESSENCE + smartwater Live Well Challenge
    • Build Your Legacy 2022
    • Dream & Plan with Confidence Prudential
    • AMEX Platinum Travel
    • Homecoming Season 2022
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Money & Career
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Black Travel Guide
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Raise Your Voice
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Video
  • Festival
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2022 Fest Videos
  • Events
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2022 Girls United Summit
    • 2022 ESSENCE Fashion House
    • 2022 Homecoming Season
    • She Got Now
    • Dear Black Men
    • I Am Speaking
    • Power Tools
  • Studios
  • Girls United
Home · Culture

18 Books To Celebrate Juneteenth With

As the tears of white fragility are flooding newsfeeds, taking a close look at the origins of our institutions, and customs is more important than ever.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
By Keyaira Boone · Updated June 14, 2021

Deliberate attempts to obscure the ugliness of American history have hidden Juneteenth just out of “mainstream” culture’s frame since the holiday’s inception. Also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, or Liberation Day, the Galveston-bred cause for celebration marks the freeing of the final enslaved persons on American soil. 

Parts of the country, especially its birthplace of Texas, have honored Juneteenth with cookouts, parades and other community events for years, but with the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others whose names we haven’t yet heard forcing America to take a look at itself, there have been increased attempts to raise the profile of the occasion. As awareness spreads, however, concerns have been raised about sanitizing the legacy of this important day in Black American history.

While you could scour the internet for information, there’s no better resource on Juneteenth than printed text. The books listed below shed light on the history of Juneteenth through research and personal narratives, the racist systems erected in the aftermath of abolition and some of the art the holiday inspired.

01
On Juneteenth – Annete Gordon Reed
The Texas native behind 2009’s Pulitzer Prize-winning work The Hemingses of Monticello, turns her talents to sharing the facts behind the holiday.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
02
Juneteenth Texas : Essays in African-American Folklore
Learn the origins of some of the cultural traditions and legends associated with this joyful occasion by exploring its Texan roots.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
03
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America Book – Clint Smith
Smith uses his hometown of New Orleans to introduce examples of how white supremacy shapes our environments.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
04
They Were Her Property -Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
Rogers provides evidence for an argument that white women’s role in slavery was not as passive as previously portrayed.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
05
Stony the Road – Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Louis Gates Jr., closely explores the century between abolition and the civil rights revolution.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
06
Envisioning Emancipation
Published on the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, this book uses rarely seen images to illuminate what the road to freedom actually looked like.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
07
We Were Eight Years In Power
Coates uses the touchpoint of reconstruction to offer sharp commentary on modern politics.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
08
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
This well-researched text connects the legacy of slavery to the over-policing that contributes to mass incarceration.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
09
Black on Both Sides- A Racial History of Trans Identity – C. Riley Snorton
Nobody is free until we’re all free.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
10
Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880 – W. E. B. Du Bois
The first complete study focusing on Black Americans post-abolotion.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
11
The Purpose of Power – Alicia Garza
The Black Live Matter co-founder advocates for grace among those trying to create social change.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
12
Worldly Things – Michael Kleber-Diggs
This winner of the 2020 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize looks at how America has systemically failed the Black community while encouraging its readers to aspire for better.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
13
The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
This 2016 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel reimagines the real-life Underground Railroad that rescued many Americans from slavery.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
14
A Little Devil In America – Hanif Abdurraqib
A reflection of the ways Black performance has been infused into our collective psyches.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
15
The Fire Next Time – James Baldwin
Curl up with the classic that inspired a generation of thinkers.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
16
The Prophets – Robert Jones, Jr.
The author gives voice to the enslaved and the enslavers in his debut novel.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Buy Now
17
Four Hundred Souls by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain
Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain come together to carefully present the takes of ninety writers on five consecutive years of the 400 year time span between the fateful year of 1619 and 2019.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Pre-Order Now
18
The 1619 Project
Learn about the foundation of the country where King’s dream was formed.
18 Books To Read Leading Up To Juneteenth
Stream Here
TOPICS:  Books Entertainment Juneteenth juneteenth celebration

COMPANY INFORMATION
  • Our Company
  • Customer Service
  • Essence Ventures
  • Change Your Address
  • Contact Us
  • Job Opportunities
  • Internships
  • Media Kit
  • tag
SUBSCRIBE
  • Newsletters
  • Give a Gift of ESSENCE
  • Magazine Tablet Edition
FOLLOW US
MORE ON ESSENCE
  • Home
  • Love
  • Celebrity
  • Beauty
  • Hair
  • Fashion
  • ESSENCE festival

ESSENCE.com is part of ESSENCE Communications, Inc.

Essence may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

©2023 ESSENCE Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Essence.com Advertising Terms

Get The ESSENCE Newsletter and
Special Offers delivered to your inbox

By clicking Sign Up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Get The ESSENCE Magazine
by subscribing below
subscribe now