Juneteenth: Books for Adults

Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, Juneteenth recognizes the date when enslaved African Americans in Texas finally learned the Civil War was over and they were free. Minnesota has observed Juneteenth since 1996, and it was designated as a federal holiday in 2021. Learn more in these recommended reads for adults!

Updated May 26, 2026
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On Juneteenth
Gordon-Reed, Annette
Paper Book
Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth provides a historian's view of the country's long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have...
Watermelon & red birds : a cookbook for Juneteenth and black celebrations
Taylor, Nicole A.
Paper Book
The very first cookbook to celebrate Juneteenth, from food writer and cookbook author Nicole A. Taylor--who draws on her decade of experiences observing the holiday. On June 19, 1865, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Major...
Make good the promises : reclaiming Reconstruction and its legacies
Conwill, Kinshasha
Paper Book
The companion volume to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture exhibit, opening in September 2021 With a Foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Eric Foner and a preface by veteran museum director and historian Spencer Crew An...
The American daughters : a novel
Ruffin, Maurice Carlos
Paper Book
"An enthralling tale of a secret resistance movement run by Black women in pre-Civil War New Orleans."--Time "Stirring . . . In telling this important, neglected history with imagination-fueled research, The American Daughters offers an inspiring story of people...
Chasing the North Star : a novel
Morgan, Robert
Paper Book
In his latest historical novel, bestselling author Robert Morgan brings to full and vivid life the story of Jonah Williams, who, in 1850, on his eighteenth birthday, flees the South Carolina plantation on which he was born a slave. He takes with him only a few stolen coins, a knife, and the...

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