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Read, Learn, and Celebrate Juneteenth

Studio Museum

The below texts, for both adults and children, provide information on the legacy and history of Juneteenth.


Adult Reading List





  1. On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
  2. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
  3. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  4. A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
  5. The Life And Times Of Frederick Douglass by Frederic Douglass
  6. Barracoon: the Story of the Last Black Cargo by Zora Neale Hurston 
  7. 1619 A Podcast the New York Times 
  8. 1619 Project, marking the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans arriving in America, the New York Times Magazine 
  9. Wake: The Hidden History Of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall  
  10. Juneteenth Texas: Essays In African American Folklore by Francis Abernethy
  11.  “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  12. “The Societal Frame: A Tool to Address Racism in the Galleries" by Michelle Jordan Antonisse, 
  13. Museums & Race: Transformation and Justice, Reading List on Museums and Race: Transformation and Justice
  14. For Colored Nerds: Watermelon and Redbirds
  15. National Archives Safeguards Original 'Juneteenth' General Order
  16. Juneteenth: The History of a New Holiday (Original 2020, Updated 2022)

Children's Reading List


Grade K–5


  1. Juneteenth (On My Own Holidays) by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and Drew Nelson
  2. Juneteenth for Mazie by Floyd Cooper
  3. Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson
  4. Opal Lee and What It Means To Be Free by Alice Faye Duncan (Audiobook)  (2022)

Grades 6–12


  1. Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom by Charles A. Taylor
  2. Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison
  3. We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
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