Juneteenth Book Suggestions for Adults

Juneteenth commemorates an effective end of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday. Check out the books on this list to learn more about the history of Juneteenth and slavery in the United States.

Updated June 12, 2024
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County)Oregon City Public Library
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The 1619 Project : a new origin story
Hannah-Jones, Nikole
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER * A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. "[A] groundbreaking compendium . . ....
African American poetry : 250 years of struggle & song
Young, Kevin
Paper Book
Taking the measure of the tradition in a single indispensable volume, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song sets a new standard for a genuinely deep engagement with Black poetry and its essential expression of American genius.
African founders : how enslaved people expanded American ideals
Fischer, David Hackett
Paper Book
In this sweeping, foundational work, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Hackett Fischer draws on extensive research to show how enslaved Africans and their descendants enlarged American ideas of freedom in varying ways in different regions of the early United States. ...
Africatown : America's last slave ship and the community it created
Tabor, Nick
Paper Book
An evocative and epic story, Nick Tabor's Africatown charts the fraught history of America from those who were brought here as slaves but nevertheless established a home for themselves and their descendants, a community which often thrived despite persistent racism and environmental...
The agitators : three friends who fought for abolition and women's rights
Wickenden, Dorothy
Paper Book
An LA Times Best Book of the Year "Engrossing... examines the major events of the mid 19th century through the lives of three key figures in the abolitionist and women's rights movements." --Smithsonian From the executive editor of ...
The American queen : a novel
Miller, Vanessa
Paper Book
AS SEEN ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA: GMA 15 New Books to Read! 2024 American Fiction Award WINNER for African American Fiction AND Historical Fiction "Miller brings to enthralling life a hidden gem in American history." --Publishers Weekly There is only one known queen who...
Black ghost of empire : the long death of slavery and the failure of emancipation
Manjapra, Kris
Paper Book
If the 1619 Project illuminated the ways in which life in the United States has been shaped by the existence of slavery, this "historical, literary masterpiece" (Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy) focuses on emancipation and how its afterlife further codified the racial caste system--instead...
Breaking chains : slavery on trial in the Oregon Territory
Nokes, R. Gregory.
Paper Book
When they were brought to Oregon in 1844, Missouri slaves Robin and Polly Holmes and their children were promised freedom in exchange for helping develop their owner's Willamette Valley farm. However, Nathaniel Ford, an influential settler and legislator, kept them in bondage until 1850, even...
Congress at war : how Republican reformers fought the Civil War, defied Lincoln, ended slavery, and remade America
Bordewich, Fergus M.
Paper Book
The story of how Congress helped win the Civil War--a new perspective that puts the House and Senate, rather than Lincoln, at the center of the conflict. This brilliantly argued new perspective on the Civil War overturns the popular conception that Abraham Lincoln single-handedly...
Driving the Green book : a road trip through the living history of Black resistance
Hall, Alvin D.
Paper Book
Join award-winning broadcaster Alvin Hall on a journey through America's haunted racial past, with the legendary Green Book as your guide. For countless Americans, the open road has long been a place where dangers lurk. In the era of Jim Crow, Black travelers experienced...
Educated for freedom : the incredible story of two fugitive schoolboys who grew up to change a nation
Duane, Anna Mae
Paper Book
The powerful story of two young men who changed the national debate about slavery In the 1820s, few Americans could imagine a viable future for black children. Even abolitionists saw just two options for African American youth: permanent subjection or exile. Educated for Freedom...
The fire next time
Baldwin, James
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The book that galvanized the nation, gave voice to the emerging civil rights movementin the 1960s--and still lights the way to understanding race in America today. * "The finest essay I've ever read." --Ta-Nehisi Coates At once a powerful evocation of James...
Four hundred souls : a community history of African America, 1619-2019
Kendi, Ibram X.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A chorus of extraordinary voices tells the epic story of the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present--edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on...
Gateway to freedom : the hidden history of the underground railroad
Foner, Eric
Paper Book
More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America's history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched...
The Good Lord Bird
McBride, James
Paper Book
Now a Showtime limited series starring Ethan Hawke and Daveed Diggs Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction From the bestselling author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, Deacon King Kong (an Oprah Book Club pick) and The Color...
Homegoing
Gyasi, Yaa
Paper Book
Winner of the NBCC's John Leonard First Book Prize A New York Times 2016 Notable Book One of Oprah's 10 Favorite Books of 2016 NPR's Debut Novel of the Year One of Buzzfeed's Best Fiction Books Of 2016 One of Time's Top 10 Novels of 2016
How the word is passed : a reckoning with the history of slavery across America
Smith, Clint
Paper Book
This "important and timely" (Drew Faust, Harvard Magazine) #1 New York Times bestseller examines the legacy of slavery in America--and how both history and memory continue to shape our everyday lives. Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint...
The impending crisis, 1848-1861
Potter, David Morris.
Paper Book
"David M. Potter's magisterial The Impending Crisis is the single best account to date of the coming of the Civil War." --Civil War History David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is "the classic study of of antebellum America" (American Prospect). Potter's...
The internal enemy : slavery and war in Virginia, 1772-1832
Taylor, Alan
Paper Book
Frederick Douglass recalled that slaves living along Chesapeake Bay longingly viewed sailing ships as "freedom's swift-winged angels." In 1813 those angels appeared in the bay as British warships coming to punish the Americans for declaring war on the empire. Over many nights, hundreds of slaves...
Juneteenth : a novel
Ellison, Ralph
Paper Book
The radiant, posthumous second novel by the visionary author of Invisible Man, featuring an introduction and a new postscript by Ralph Ellison's literary executor, John F. Callahan, and a preface by National Book Award-winning author Charles Johnson   "Ralph...
The last slave ship : the true story of how Clotilda was found, her descendants, and an extraordinary reckoning
Raines, Ben
Paper Book
An NPR Best Book of the Year The incredible true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day--by the journalist who...
Let us descend : a novel
Ward, Jesmyn
Paper Book
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * Instant New York Times Bestseller * Named one of the best books of 2023 by The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The Boston Globe, Time, The New Yorker, and more. "Nothing short of epic,...
Lincoln and the abolitionists : John Quincy Adams, slavery, and the Civil War
Kaplan, Fred
Paper Book
"Anyone who wants to understand the United States' racial divisions will learn a lot from reading Kaplan's richly researched account of one of the worst periods in American history and its chilling effects today in our cities, legislative bodies, schools, and houses of worship." -- St....
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
Woo, Ilyon
Paper Book
Winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Biography "A rich narrative of the Crafts, an enslaved couple who escaped from Georgia in 1848, with light-skinned Ellen disguised as a disabled white gentleman and William as her manservant, exploiting assumptions about race, class, and...
Never caught : the Washingtons' relentless pursuit of their runaway slave, Ona Judge
Dunbar, Erica Armstrong
Paper Book
Finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction "A fascinating and moving account of a courageous and resourceful woman. Beautifully written and utilizing previously untapped sources it sheds new light both on the father of our country and on the intersections of slavery and...
Of blood and sweat : Black lives and the making of White power and wealth
Ford, Clyde W.
Paper Book
"Ford's overlap of past and present, narrative and commentary is masterful, and makes this volume all the more valuable to those readers wise enough to allow the past to inform the future. Of Blood and Sweat is a myth-busting work of genius that will stand as the last word on this vital subject...
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...
A Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940
McLagan, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Published in cooperation with Oregon Black Pioneers A Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940, remains the most comprehensive chronology of Black life in Oregon more than forty years after its original publication in 1980. Elizabeth...
Post traumatic slave syndrome : America's legacy of enduring injury and healing
Leary, Joy DeGruy
Paper Book
In the 16th century, the beginning of African enslavement in the Americas until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and emancipation in 1865, Africans were hunted like animals, captured, sold, tortured, and raped. They experienced the worst kind of physical, emotional, psychological, and...
The president and the freedom fighter : Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and their battle to save America's soul
Kilmeade, Brian
Paper Book
Brian Kilmeade tells the little-known story of how Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass moved from strong disagreement to friendship, uniting over their love for the Constitution and over their surprising commonalities. Both came from destitution. Both were self-educated and self-made men. Both...
Say it loud! : on race, law, history, and culture
Kennedy, Randall
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR * A collection of provocative essays exploring the key social justice issues of our time--from George Floyd to antiracism to inequality and the Supreme Court. Kennedy is "among the most incisive American commentators on race" (...
The second founding : how the Civil War and Reconstruction remade the constitution
Foner, Eric
Paper Book
The Declaration of Independence announced equality as an American ideal, but it took the Civil War and the subsequent adoption of three constitutional amendments to establish that ideal as American law. The Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed all persons due process and equal...
Separate : the story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America's journey from slavery to segregation
Luxenberg, Steve
Paper Book
A shattering narrative of how a nation embraced "separation" and its pernicious consequences. Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court case synonymous with "separate but equal," drew remarkably little attention when the justices announced their decision on May 18, 1896. Yet it is one...
Stony the road : Reconstruction, white supremacy, and the rise of Jim Crow
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.
Paper Book
The abolition of slavery after the Civil War is a familiar story, as is the civil rights revolution that transformed the nation after World War II. But the century in between remains a mystery: if emancipation sparked 'a new birth of freedom' in Lincoln's America, why was it necessary to march in...
Teddy and Booker T. : how two American icons blazed a path for racial equality
Kilmeade, Brian
Paper Book
When President Theodore Roosevelt welcomed the country's most visible Black man, Booker T. Washington, into his circle of counselors in 1901, the two confronted a shocking and violent wave of racist outrage. In the previous decade, Jim Crow laws had legalized discrimination in the South, eroding...
Thaddeus Stevens : Civil War revolutionary, fighter for racial justice
Levine, Bruce C.
Paper Book
A "powerful" (The Wall Street Journal) biography of one of the 19th century's greatest statesmen, encompassing his decades-long fight against slavery and his postwar struggle to bring racial justice to America. Thaddeus Stevens was among the first to see the Civil War as...
They were her property : white women as slave owners in the American South
Jones-Rogers, Stephanie E.
Paper Book
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History: a bold and searing investigation into the role of white women in the American slave economy   "Stunning."--Rebecca Onion, Slate   "Makes a vital contribution to our...
Twelve years a slave : narrative of Solomon Northup, a citizen of New-York, kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and rescued in 1853
Northup, Solomon
Paper Book
The story that inspired the major motion picture, with an introduction by the bestselling author of Wench, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing, vividly detailed, and utterly unforgettable account of slavery. The story that inspired the major...
The underground railroad : a novel
Whitehead, Colson
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * "An American masterpiece" (NPR) that chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. One of The New York Times's 10...
Unsung : unheralded narratives of American slavery & abolition
Young, Kevin
Paper Book
A new historical anthology from transatlantic slavery to the Reconstruction curated by the Schomburg Center, that makes the case for focusing on the histories of Black people as agents and architects of their own lives and ultimate liberation, with a foreword by Kevin Young This...
Up from slavery
Washington, Booker T.
Paper Book
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time In Up from Slavery, Washington recounts the story of his life-from slave to educator. The early sections deal with his upbringing as a slave and his efforts to get an education. Washington...
The war before the war : fugitive slaves and the struggle for America's soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
Delbanco, Andrew
Paper Book
"Excellent...stunning."--Ta-Nehisi Coates The devastating story of how fugitive slaves drove the nation to Civil War A New York Times Notable Book Selection * Winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize* Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award * A ...
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...
We were eight years in power : an American tragedy
Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Paper Book
In this "urgently relevant"* collection featuring the landmark essay "The Case for Reparations," the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me "reflects on race, Barack Obama's presidency and its jarring aftermath"*--including the election of Donald...
The worst passions of human nature : White supremacy in the Civil War north
Escott, Paul D.
Paper Book
The American North?s commitment to preventing a southern secession rooted in slaveholding suggests a society united in its opposition to slavery and racial inequality. The reality, however, was far more complex and troubling. In his latest book, Paul Escott lays bare the contrast between...

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