Ibram X. Kendi

“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.

Illustration: news.crunchbase.com

Help your accounts and their readers stay informed by recommending this collection as well as additional resources. Above all: Keep reading, keep learning, and keep fighting.

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story will be published by One World Books on 11/16/19, offering a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present and a dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism.

In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.