Juneteenth in Historical and Cultural Context
A Collection of Resources from Bard College Faculty and Staff
Following President Botstein's message declaring Friday, June 18, 2021 an official campus holiday at Bard College, here are further resources for those who wish to read, listen, reflect, and learn more about the historical and cultural significance of Juneteenth as a day of celebration and commemoration (to begin, see “So You Want to Learn About Juneteenth?” from the New York Times).Please join us in thanking our contributing colleagues for their expertise and generous suggestions.
Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth
David Blight, A Slave No More
For children/younger readers: Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick McKissack, Jr., Days of Jubilee
—Myra Young Armstead, Lyford Paterson Edwards and Helen Gray Edwards Professor of Historical Studies and Vice President for Academic Inclusive Excellence
Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer, Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery (2012)
Tiya Miles, All that She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake (2021)
Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham, Black Futures (2020)
Alaina Roberts, I've Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land (2021)
Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s PBS series “Reconstruction: America after the Civil War”
—Christian Crouch, Associate Professor of Historical Studies and Director, American Studies Program
Ralph Ellison’s posthumously published novel titled Juneteenth
—Tabetha Ewing, Associate Professor of History
Clint Smith's just-released book of essays, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America does a wonderful job of addressing both the historically specific, and the broader context of how slavery is and has been understood (and, more often than not, how it has been rather intentionally misunderstood). Here's a quick Twitter thread of the author recounting the places in which the book's essays are rooted, one of then being Galveston, Texas.
—Pete L'Official, Assistant Professor of Literature
A resource I have pulled from often is a place called Learning for Justice, in the past you may have heard of it under their old name Teaching Tolerance. This article, “We Are Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams” by Monita K. Bell is one I've found particularly memorable.
For students younger than Kindergarten age, I often read this book in class and had a discussion about it: Juneteenth for Mazie, by Floyd Cooper.
—Sam Prince ’14, Regional Admissions Counselor, Pacific Northwest
Karen Cox, No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice (just out)
Maurice O. Wallace, Shawn Michelle Smith, Pictures and Progress: Early Photography and the Making of African American Identity
John Stauffer, Zoe Trodd, and Celeste-Marie Bernier, Picturing Frederick Douglass
Susan Stessin-Cohn and Ashley Hurlburt-Biagini, In Defiance: Runaways from Slavery in New York's Hudson River Valley, 1735-1831
—Julia Rosenbaum, Associate Professor of Art History
“Let My People Go,” performed by Paul Robeson
—John Ryle, Legrand Ramsey Professor of Anthropology
Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being
Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals
—Drew Thompson, Associate Professor, Historical and Africana Studies
Post Date: 06-16-2021