Juneteenth Reading List

Juneteenth is the federal holiday commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States.  Join MPL in celebrating this day of freedom with one of these titles from our collection. Look for these, and more, at the display located on Level Three of the library.

Nonfiction:

On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations by Nicole Taylor

General Gordon Granger: the Savior of Chickamauga and the Man Behind Juneteenth by Robert Conner

Freedom National : The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 by James Oakes

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight

Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi

How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

The Black History Book by Prof. Nemata Blyden

Until Justice Be Done by Kate Masur

Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington

The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks by Toni Tipton-Martin

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

Fiction

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Black Cloud Rising by David Wright Falade

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison

Daughters of Jubilation by Kara Lee Corthron

A Sitting in St. James by Rita Williams-Garcia

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Roots by Alex Haley