| Annette Gordon-Reed |
Annette Gordon-Reed on Texas history and growing up there in the ’60s and ’70s
Her new book, ‘On Juneteenth,’ explores the complexities of the pasht and how we think of them
The 10 Best Books of 2021
'On Juneteenth' Historian Examines The 'Hope' And 'Hostility' Toward Emancipation
May 14, 2021
While the story of her home state is a large part of the focus of historian Annette Gordon-Reed’s latest work, “On Juneteenth,” it is also a very personal project.
Gordon-Reed’s new, 144-page book is named for the holiday commemorating the moment when news of legalized slavery’s end in the U.S. finally reached African Americans in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865 — about 2½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation. A blend of history and memoir, it shines a light on some of her early experiences in the segregationist South — she became the first Black student to attend a white school in her town — and how the country’s largest state “has always embodied nearly every major aspect of the story of the United States of America.”