Saturday, June 19 We Celebrate Juneteenth

By Candice Chaplin | March 19 2021 | FictionNonfictionPromo Opportunity

“On June 19, 1865, Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and told slaves of their emancipation. That day came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. While the holiday was informally commemorated in later years, Texas became the first state to make it a state holiday in 1980. Last year, numerous states, cities and colleges across the US moved to recognize it as an official holiday.” (CNN)

As more companies designate Juneteenth an official work holiday, and the work of racial reckoning is at the forefront of our national priorities, Juneteenth becomes a more recognized historical celebration. Help booksellers help their customers understand this holiday with fiction and non-fiction that shines a light on the past and present.

Sample titles are shown below, but to see the complete list:

  • On Edelweiss, click here
  • On the Backlist Vault, click here
His Truth Is Marching On
John Lewis and the Power of Hope
978-1-9848-5502-2
A timely and inspiring portrait of civil rights hero and longtime U.S. congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the quest for equal rights from the 1950s to the present--from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of America.
$30.00 US
Aug 25, 2020
Hardcover
Random House
World

Four Hundred Souls
A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
978-0-593-13404-7
A "choral history" of African Americans covering 400 years of history in the voices of 90 writers, edited by the bestselling, National Book Award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi and award-winning historian Keisha N. Blain.
$32.00 US
Feb 02, 2021
Hardcover
One World
US, Canada, Open Mkt

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
978-0-451-53146-9
“One of the major autobiographies of the African-American tradition.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.“It has been painful to me, in many ways, to recall the dreary years I passed in bondage. I would gladly forget them if I could. Yet the retrospection is not altogether without solace; for with these gloomy recollections come tender memories of my good old grandmother, like light fleecy clouds floating over a dark and troubled sea.”One of the most memorable slave narratives, Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl illustrates the overarching evil and pervasive depravity of the institution of slavery. In great and painful detail, Jacobs describes her life as a Southern slave, the exploitation that haunted her daily life, her abuse by her master, the involvement she sought with another white man in order to escape her master, and her determination to win freedom for herself and her children. From her seven years of hiding in a garret that was three feet high, to her harrowing escape north to a reunion with her children and freedom, Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains an outstanding example of one woman’s extraordinary courage in the face of almost unbeatable odds, as well as one of the most significant testimonials in American history.
$5.95 US
Jan 05, 2010
Mass Market Paperback
Signet
World

The Weary Blues
978-0-385-35297-0
A beautiful new edition of this beloved poet's first collection, originally published in 1926 when he was just twenty-four.
$26.95 US
Feb 10, 2015
Hardcover
Knopf
US, Canada, Open Mkt