Books to Read for Juneteenth
A reading list for learning more about Juneteenth, emancipation, Reconstruction, and Black freedom
I don’t remember learning about Juneteenth in school. I learned the broad history of emancipation, but June 19, 1865, and the generations of celebration that followed were missing from that history.
I’m hopeful (though not especially optimistic) that students are getting a fuller version today.
For anyone who wants to learn more for themselves or share with their kids, these books cover Juneteenth, emancipation, Reconstruction, Black freedom, and the parts of American history too often taught through the wrong lens.
Picture Books
Juneteenth for Mazie by Floyd Cooper A young girl learns about her ancestors through her grandfather’s stories as she gets ready to celebrate Juneteenth.
The Juneteenth Cookbook by Alliah L. Agostini and Taffy Elrod A cookbook pairing Juneteenth history with recipes and activities for kids and families.
All Different Now by Angela Johnson Told through the eyes of one girl, the story of the first Juneteenth and the day freedom reached the last enslaved people in Texas.
They Built Me for Freedom by Tonya Duncan Ellis The story of Juneteenth told through Houston’s Emancipation Park, the land bought by formerly enslaved people to celebrate their freedom.
Juneteenth Jamboree by Carole Boston Weatherford A girl new to Texas comes to understand Juneteenth when she experiences the community celebration for the first time.
Elementary & Middle Grade
What Is Juneteenth? by Kirsti Jewel (Who HQ) A history of June 19, 1865, early celebrations, and how the holiday is observed today.
The History of Juneteenth by Arlisha Norwood A history for newer readers explaining why General Order No. 3 was necessary and what freedom meant for the people it reached.
The Juneteenth Story by Alliah L. Agostini An illustrated history of the holiday’s origins, customs, and significance.
Come Juneteenth by Ann Rinaldi A Texas family keeps an enslaved girl unaware that freedom has come, and the reckoning that follows when she learns the truth.
Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson Two children escape a plantation and find a hidden community of freedom seekers.
Young Adult
Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper A girl is taken from her West African village, sold into slavery in the Carolinas, and escapes south toward a Spanish colony that offered freedom to the enslaved.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson During the Revolutionary War, an enslaved girl in New York City spies for the rebels while fighting for her own and her sister’s freedom.
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride An enslaved boy joins abolitionist John Brown’s crew, told with sharp humor as the country edges toward war.
Day of Tears by Julius Lester A novel in dialogue built around the largest slave auction in American history, following the people sold and separated and what freedom later meant for them.
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland An alternate history in which the dead rise on Civil War battlefields and a Black girl trained to fight them confronts a country still bent on controlling Black lives after emancipation.
Adult Nonfiction
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed A Texas native blends history, memoir, and family chronicle to trace Juneteenth’s origins and the hardships Black Texans faced from Reconstruction onward.
Illusions of Emancipation by Joseph P. Reidy An account of how the end of slavery unfolded, examining freedom as an uneven process across time, place, and the lives of the formerly enslaved.
Forever Free by Eric Foner A reexamination of emancipation and Reconstruction and the unfinished work of Black freedom and citizenship.
Envisioning Emancipation by Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer A photographic history of more than 140 images documenting Black life from slavery through freedom, including Juneteenth celebrations and reunions.
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson A narrative of the Great Migration following three people who left the Jim Crow South for the North and West.
Adult Fiction
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead A reimagining of the railroad as a literal train, following a woman’s flight from a Georgia plantation toward freedom.
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris In the final days of the Civil War, two newly freed brothers take refuge on a Georgia farm, forging an alliance that upends a grieving white couple’s life and the town around them.
Jubilee by Margaret Walker Vyry’s story from slavery through the Civil War and into the uncertain freedom of Reconstruction in the Deep South.
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines A fictional oral history spanning more than a century as Miss Jane recounts her life from childhood slavery through emancipation, sharecropping, and the Civil Rights era.
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora Moving between slavery and the early years of freedom, a healer and her daughter navigate the world after the war.
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I didn't learn it fully in school either, and now I get to choose differently for my own kids, which feels like its own quiet form of repair. Freewater has been on my list since it won the Newbery, and seeing it sitting next to On Juneteenth and The Warmth of Other Suns reminds me how much range this history actually holds, picture book to oral history to migration narrative. This is the kind of list I'll come back to more than once. Thanks for taking the time to write it.
Great list!