Annette Gordon-Reed

Juneteenth, Not Just a Holiday - a conversation with Annette Gordon-Reed, author of On Juneteenth.

With special guest, Ms. Opal Lee. Moderated by Dr. Stacie McCormick.

Dr. Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard. She has won sixteen book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2009 and the National Book Award in 2008, for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton, 2008).

There is perhaps no one more qualified than Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed to tell the sweeping story of Juneteenth. In her searing book On Juneteenth, the Texas native chronicles both the state’s, and the country’s, long road to Juneteenth—and the many hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since, from Jim Crow and beyond.

Annette expertly weaves together her own family’s chronicle—she is a descendant of enslaved people brought to Texas as early as the 1820s—alongside the wider context of American history. It is this combination of poignant personal anecdotes and powerfully demonstrative facts that makes Annette’s account so vital, stirring, and eloquent.

As June 19 is now recognized as a national holiday, On Juneteenth is both a celebration of the strides we’ve made towards racial justice and a reminder that the fight for equality continues to this day. This meaningful and personal talk, based on the book, breathes new life into the historical events that have led us to this moment—and illuminates a new path forward.

Read a full bio of Dr. Gordon-Reed.