Resources for Communicators

Juneteenth became a federal holiday only days ago. However, it was a quarter of a century ago in 1996 when Michigan Congresswoman Barbara Rose Collins first introduced a bill that petitioned the U.S. government to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.

“Juneteenth is a day of celebration, but it’s not a day of completion. It’s an affirmation that Black people are, and of right out to be, free. And it’s a reminder that we must dedicate ourselves to secure and protect those freedoms,”
     - Woodrow Keown, Jr., president & COO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom
        Center quoted in Movers & Makers Cincinnati, May 31, 2021.

The Origins of Juneteenth
Juneteenth celebrates the day—June 19, 1865—when enslaved people in Texas were finally given their freedom. Although the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the South in 1863, it could not be enforced in many places until after the end of the Civil War in 1865.

The day serves as a reminder that although July 4, 1776, commemorates Independence Day for our country, as the founding fathers declared independence from the British, not all the people of the U.S. were free. The 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery in the United States) was passed on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865. Yet, the ending of slavery was far more complicated.

“The timeline of ending slavery is a little awkward because it ends in different places at different times.” -Andrew J. Torget, historian-University of North Texas, and author of "Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800-1850" in a USA Today interview.

With this new national holiday being declared, we encourage communicators to help their audiences learn more. Therefore, we’re sharing a list of area resources and events for 2021.

Greater Cincinnati Resources & Events

• Juneteenth Cincinnati website      
• Cincinnati.com Juneteenth events listing
• Juneteenth Cincinnati 2021 for all of Cincinnati
• National Underground Railroad Freedom Center permanent exhibits
• Juneteenth Celebration at Art Climb
• Kenton County Library Juneteenth Book recommendations
• Dayton Juneteenth Festival

National Resources

• BLKFREEDOM.org - a combined effort of Cincinnati’s Freedom Center, America’s Black Holocaust Museum (Milwaukee), Amistad Research Center of Tulane University (New Orleans), August Wilson African American Cultural Center (Pittsburgh), California African American Museum (Los Angeles), Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (Detroit), Harvey Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture (Charlotte), Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park (Hilton Head Island, SC), National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis) and the Northwest African American Museum (Seattle). The film will explore the historical influences on the evolution of the Black experience in America using the context of the national anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
• Exclusive: The Smithsonian Channel Recruits Storytellers to Explore the Meaning of Juneteenth
• The African Americans | Many Rivers to Cross - What is Juneteenth?
  Major General Gordon Granger’s order to inform slave owners of President Abraham Lincoln’s declaration (you may need a subscription). 
• What does the Juneteenth flag mean?