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Alfred R. Waud, artist. "The first vote." Print shows African American men, in dress indicative of their professions, in a queue waiting their turn to vote. 1867. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.

Contributions by African Americans to the arts, education, industry, literature, politics and much more are well represented in the vast collections of the Library of Congress. The Library's digital collections, online exhibits, online catalog, databases and other online resources provide a broad range of multi-formatted digitized material available for research on the African American experience. The primary purpose of this guide is to introduce the user to digitized primary sources available online at the Library of Congress. To broaden the user's search beyond the Library of Congress, a list of suggested external websites is included.

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Research Guides: African American History Online: A Resource Guide: Introduction

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Contributions by African Americans to the arts, education, industry, literature, politics and much more are well represented in the vast collections of the Library of Congress. The Library's digital collections, online exhibits, online catalog, databases and other online resources provide a broad range of multi-formatted digitized material available for research on the African American experience.

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Put History In The Hands Of Learners

Gale In Context: U.S. History is an engaging experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events, and topics in U.S. history. This comprehensive, contextual, media-rich collection empowers learners to develop information literacy and critical thinking skills. Topics range from the arrival of Vikings in North America to the first stirrings of the American Revolution and on through the Civil Rights movement, September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and the War on Terror.

Reference content, millions of news and periodical articles, and more than 5,500 rare and vital primary source documents that range from slave journals to presidential papers are aligned to curriculum and provide many options for an exploration of U.S. history. U.S. History is cross-searchable with Gale In Context: World History for users with access to both resources.
Access through your library >>

A part of the Gale In Context suite, U.S. History offers an enhanced user experience with familiar navigation and a modern design to help users successfully navigate across Gale products. This means less time learning how to use the product, and more time developing critical thinking skills. Tools like translation, text size adjustment, and text-to-speech help users with comprehension, while Lexile levels and content levels help guide users to appropriate content.

Get the most out of your investment. Add Gale In Context: For Educators, a specialized toolkit that lets educators collect, organize, customize, and share instructional materials sourced from your Gale In Context databases.

FEATURED RESEARCH

"I saw a way that I could collaborate with my colleagues more efficiently and get resources to students and make it more effective and personalized for their learning."

-Teacher, Central York High School, Pennsylvania

Platform Features & Tools

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Google Workspace for Education and Microsoft 365 tools enable users to share, save, and download content-including highlights and notes. Learn More

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Integrated directly into the user's workflow, formatted citations can be easily imported from single or multiple documents to services like EasyBib or NoodleTools. MLA-, APA-, and Chicago-style citations are supported.

"I knew that it made a lot of sense to have Gale products since students were using G Suite for Education. Also, teachers were looking for current research material, which In Context databases provided."

"By limiting the content allowed into the search pool, databases such as the two reviewed here [U.S. History in Context and World History in Context] avoid burying researchers with the sheer number of results returned in an open Web search."

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U.S. History Articles & Primary Source Database - Gale

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Gale In Context: U.S. History is an engaging experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events, and topics in U.S. history. This comprehensive, contextual, media-rich collection empowers learners to develop information literacy and critical thinking skills.

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On June 17, 2021, President Biden signed an act establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Met with overwhelming bipartisan support, Juneteenth was the first new federal holiday to be created in almost 40 years.

During the President's remarks at the Signing of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, he said:

"And that's why we must understand that Juneteenth represents not only the commemoration of the end of slavery in America more than 150 years ago, but the ongoing work to have to bring true equity and racial justice into American society, which we can do.

In short, this day doesn't just celebrate the past; it calls for action today."

Inspire your students to action by teaching them the history of Juneteenth with this Edpuzzle Original video lesson.

A Juneteenth Video Lesson for Grades 3-12

The video opens with an animated telling of the story of Molly Harrel, a seven-year-old girl who was enslaved.

We find Molly on June 19, 1865, the day that the plantation owner where Molly was enslaved announced a proclamation from the federal government: all slaves in the state of Texas were now free.

The content of the video lesson allows you the flexibility to adapt it to elementary, middle, or high school, so you can use Edpuzzle's built-in questions or add your own to personalize it to your specific group of students.

Key Takeaways from the Juneteenth Video Lesson

In this video lesson, students will learn about the Emancipation Proclamation, which legally freed all enslaved people in the seceded states in 1863.

The video also reviews the 13th Amendment, which Constitutionally outlawed slavery throughout the entire country, and was not passed until 1865.

It explores the early celebrations of Juneteenth, which included barbecue and dressing up in fancy clothes, and mostly took place in Texas. Formerly enslaved people used Juneteenth to celebrate their independence, survival, and freedom.

It wasn't until 1980 that individual states began recognizing Juneteenth as an official state holiday, and in 2021, Juneteenth became an official federal holiday.

Finally, students will learn about the Juneteenth flag and what it symbolizes:

A star for Texas (the Lone Star State, where the holiday originated) and to represent the freedom of enslaved people in all 50 states

The burst as a symbol of a new beginning

The arc across as a symbol of a new horizon

The colors of red, white, and blue for the United States

How will you commemorate Juneteenth with your students? Let us know your feedback on this Edpuzzle Original video lesson by tagging us on Twitter, and share your Juneteenth lesson plans with our incredible teacher community.

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Teach your students about Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in America and is the newest federal holiday, with an Edpuzzle Original video lesson.

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Event Description

Juneteenth is a celebration of the day in 1865 that word of Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves, made its way to the state of Texas. The celebration name is a combination of "June" and "Nineteenth"-the day that the celebration takes place.

Classroom Activity

Juneteenth has grown into a heritage-centered event that focuses on family, community, education, and achievement-but its origins are still very important. How does the historical background of the day, as a celebration of freedom for the slaves of Texas, compare to other important celebrations of freedom in the United States?

Invite your students to compare Juneteenth celebrations to Fourth of July celebrations, using the Venn Diagram. What events take place on the two days? What do people do? How are the events described in the media? When students notice differences between the celebrations, ask them to hypothesize about the reasons. Conclude the discussion by asking students what conclusions they can draw about the ways that people celebrate and define freedom in the U.S.

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Event Description Juneteenth is a celebration of the day in 1865 that word of Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves, made its way to the state of Texas. The celebration name is a combination of "June" and "Nineteenth"-the day that the celebration takes place.

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Ask students to look at the following images, in order clockwise from the left

1. Ithaca NY, 2018,

2. IowaCASA, 2017, and

3. Galveston College Student Government Association, 2019

Explain that they are all from announcements to celebrate Juneteenth.

Ask students some or all of the following questions:

Describe what you see in the images.

What does Juneteenth mean to you?

How do the images represent that for you, or not?

What symbolism in the images are you familiar with?

What do you have questions about? (Chart responses.)

If students don't know what Juneteenth is, ask them to look at the images:

Describe what you see in the images.

What do you think, based on the images, Juneteenth may be about?

What do you have questions about? (Chart responses)

This Is Why Juneteenth Is Important for America

Next, invite students to watch the following 3-minute video from The Root about This Is Why Juneteenth Is Important for America.

Acknowledge that the video contains a lot of information. Play it once all the way through, then ask students what stood out for them about the piece. Ask students if they'd like to watch it again in shorter segments, rewatching each of the segments before discussing them in more detail. (Note that you can see a minute by minute transcript by clicking on the three dots below the video and selecting Open Transcript.)

Ask students some or all of the following questions:

Part 1: The Emancipation Proclamation (0:00-1:50 min)

What does the video tell us about Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation?

What does the video tell us about who freed enslaved people?

What happened on June 19, 1865?

When was Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation? What happened in between?

Who was Major General Gordon Ranger and how was he involved with freeing enslaved people in Galveston, Texas?

Did it result in enslaved people actually gaining their freedom?

How did white people respond?

Part 2: Reconstruction Era (1:50-2:29 min)

What does the video say about how Black people responded?

When was the first public Juneteenth event? How was it celebrated?

Where did it go from there?

Part 3: Jim Crow and the Civil Right Movement (2:29-2:55 min)

What happened with the Juneteenth celebration in the 20th century? Why?

What did the Poor People's March of 1968 do for the holiday?

What happened in Texas in 1980 with regard to Juneteenth?

What happened in Congress in 1997? What did Juneteenth come to be known as?

Part 4: Today and Looking Back Through History

What are your thoughts and feelings about Juneteenth becoming a national holiday?

The video describes Juneteenth as more than a celebration of freed enslaved people. Explain.

Ask students next:

Now that you've watched the video, what questions do you have about Juneteenth, or what would you like to learn more about?

Consider charting students' questions about Juneteenth. Have them research their questions themselves, or provide them with an article or range of articles like the ones below. Ask them to come back to class with the answers they found.

Possible sources to share:

If your students want to take things a step further, consider

The Atlantic Balancing the Ledger on Juneteenth, which touches on the debate over reparations, highlighting the dual purpose of the holiday: celebrating emancipation but also demanding accountability for historical and present wrongs.

Closing

Ask students:

What is one thing you learned, one thing you have questions about, or one thing you would like to share about Juneteenth, aka Black Independence Day?

Extension Activities

One hundred and fifty-five years after the news of emancipation finally reached enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, systemic racism, injustice, and police brutality continue to afflict our society and shape our lives.

In the wake of the May 25, 2020, murder of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police, mass protests spread into the streets across the country and world.

Almost a month later, for Juneteenth, the Movement for Black Lives announced A Weekend of Action to "demand justice on Juneteenth":

"In observance of Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the emancipation of African slaves in America, the Movement for Black Lives ( M4BL) is organizing a weekend of action to demand divestment from police departments and investment in Black communities."

Invite students to find out more about the protests and the Movement for Black Lives.

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Juneteenth: Why is it Important to America?

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Ask students to look at the following images, in order clockwise from the left Ithaca NY, 2018, IowaCASA, 2017, and Galveston College Student Government Association, 2019 Explain that they are all from announcements to celebrate Juneteenth. Ask students some or all of the following questions: Describe what you see in the images.

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Today Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. It is a day, a week, and in some areas, a month marked with celebrations, guest speakers, picnics and family gatherings. It is a time for reflection and rejoicing. It is a time for assessment, self-improvement and for planning the future.

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas with the news that the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in the state were free.

This day came to be known as Juneteenth, now officially a federal holiday. Juneteenth is a time to celebrate, gather as a family, reflect on the past and look to the future.

Juneteenth and the Color Red

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Each year when my family celebrates Juneteenth, our flyers boldly request that each quest bring something "Red." We then add examples, like red soda pop, watermelon, apples, or even red beans. Folks bring these items without much thinking about their origin. In fact, the roots of the symbolic efficacy of the color red can be traced to West Africa, where it has been associated with strength, spirituality, life, and death. Furthermore, culinary historians, trace the color to certain foods that traveled to the Americas along with the Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, such as hibiscus and the kola nut.

So, this year at Juneteenth, as you take a long swallow from a cool drink of hibiscus iced tea, or red punch, remember the ancestors who sacrificed, remember the blood shed in the struggle, remember the collective strength of people of the African diaspora, and finally remember the spirituality and transcendent joy that enabled us to overcome.
~Kelly Navies, museum specialist and oral historian

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Educate your followers, friends and family by sharing our graphics along with one of these suggested captions:

On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas with the news that the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in the state were free. This day came to be known as #Juneteenth, now officially a federal holiday. Celebrate with @NMAAHC: nmaach.si.edu/Juneteenth

Do you know the story of #Juneteenth? Learn more and join in the celebration with @NMAAHC: nmaahc.si.edu/Juneteenth

Discover Educational Resources

Explore More

As you celebrate Juneteenth this year, the museum offers additional resources to help you embrace the rich history of Freedom Day.

Embrace a Rich History

Watch museum videos that celebrate culture, family and freedom.

Titles for Younger Readers

Facts About Juneteenth

The National Museum of African American History and Culture's curator of women's history Angela Tate and museum specialist and oral historian Kelly Navies provide history and insight on Juneteenth.

How has the holiday evolved over the years?

Angela Tate, museum curator of women's history: "As with many things involving African American history and culture, Juneteenth is not without its own debates and detractors. Recent efforts to generate support for making it a national holiday have been met with resistance. Several Black Texans have been critical of how the state and Southern culture have been excised from the conversations and commemorations. Chaédria LaBouvier, the first Black curator at the Guggenheim Museum, tweeted in late 2020 about the lack of specificity when discussing Juneteenth and the Southern roots of African American culture:
'Histories, practices, etc that traceably originate or were developed as we currently iterate them in places that we are not living descendants of said history or ppl - we are doing the toxic, colonial thing to each other that has been done to us.'
"This sharp reminder of Juneteenth's cultural roots is echoed in a letter to the editor sent to the Atlanta Daily World in 1983, when Texas State Representative Al Edwards reminded Atlanta readers that 'Juneteenth celebrations originated here in Texas...In 1979 the 66th Legislature passed and the Governor signed my H.B. 1016 which going into effect next year made Emancipation Day an official state holiday.' When digging even further into Black newspapers, the evidence of Texas being at the heart of Juneteenth is clear: newspaper articles from the first half of the twentieth century characterize it as a strictly Texas holiday, whereas in the second half of twentieth century, it has flourished in a variety of cities, with Los Angeles being the most prevalent city of celebration.

"This is no coincidence: California was the destination for African Americans from Texas and Louisiana in the 1940s-70s, undoubtedly drawn by the continuous sunshine and the similar ethnic populations (it was split amongst black, white, and brown, as opposed to the black and white binary in the rest of the South). However, even Black newspapers from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento reveal how often Juneteenth was merely an excuse to gather over food, drinks, and music. At one celebration held in 1988, the usual red soda and funk was swapped out for finger foods as guests listened to classical music! Later, in the early 2000s, Black leaders saw in Juneteenth a piece of the overall push for reparations and federal acknowledgement and redress for the harms of slavery and Jim Crow."

Commemorative Merchandise

Transcribe Freedmen's Bureau Records

Learn about the post-Civil War transition of enslaved people by volunteering to transcribe the records of the Freedmen's Bureau, which is accessible online, through the Smithsonian Transcription Center.

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On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas with the news that the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in the state were free. This day came to be known as Juneteenth, now officially a federal holiday. Juneteenth is a time to celebrate, gather as a family, reflect on the past and look to the future.

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LoC Prints and Photograph Catalog: Juneteenth

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LoC Prints and Photograph Catalog: Juneteenth

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The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) contains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and, in some cases, other units of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress offers broad public access to these materials as a contribution to education and scholarship.

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The Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War have brought an official end to slavery, yet some Southern slave owners are refusing to comply. The road to freedom is still long and hard for many African Americans, but you're not giving up.

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Juneteenth is the commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. This holiday dates back to June 19, 1865 when Galveston, Texas became the final American city to learn of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The book list below presents titles to support educators in teaching students the history of this significant holiday which became nationally recognized in 2021. Featuring both fiction and nonfiction, this list provides necessary context and background information on this holiday for students of all ages, and helps them to recognize and acknowledge the horrors of slavery and the experiences of emancipation.

Educators can consider pairing the titles below with current events articles showcasing how people are observing this holiday around the country, or highlighting historical newspaper articles from the African American Historical Newspapers database available from The New York Public Library.

The Schomburg Literary Festival on June 18 is also a great opportunity for educators to hear from authors of African descent. Readings, panel discussions, and workshops at the event range from prose to poetry, comic books to young adult novels, fiction and nonfiction. Register here.
Summaries provided via NYPL's catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book's title for more.

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Engaging Books to Commemorate Juneteenth in the Classroom | The New York Public Library

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Titles for all ages to support educators in teaching the history of this significant holiday.

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June 19, or Juneteenth, is a holiday that commemorates the day that Texas, the last Confederate state, learned about the Emancipation Proclamation - marking the end of slavery in the United States in 1865.

But as University of Pittsburgh historian Alaina Roberts notes, it's important to remember that the emancipation of slaves didn't actually happen in one fell swoop.

"Juneteenth is a reminder that emancipation was not one moment in time: the news about the Emancipation Proclamation (which outlawed slavery within Confederate states) and the Thirteenth Amendment (which abolished slavery throughout the country) came to African Americans in different parts of the United States at different times," said Roberts, assistant professor in Pitt's Department of History in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.

How can we talk about Juneteenth and race with our children? To help, Pittwire sat down with Aisha White, director of the P.R.I.D.E. Program ( Positive Racial Identity Development in Early Education) in the School of Education's Office of Child Development. The goal of the P.R.I.D.E Program is to help young Black children develop a positive racial identity by supporting teachers, parents and other caregivers by providing resources that build their racial knowledge and skills.

How can we talk about Juneteenth to children?

You might not want to explain Juneteenth to kids if you don't want to explain slavery to them. It may be too scary a topic for kids that aren't old enough-and while children's ability to understand and manage that kind of information varies, it's safer to not start until they're closer to 6 or 7 years old. However, if children who are younger raise the issue, there are ways to explain it to them that won't cause anxiety.

I like to reference a TED Talk by author and scholar Beverly Daniel Tatum called "Is My Skin Brown Because I Drank Chocolate Milk?" The way she explained it to her son (who asked the question that became the title of her talk) was: A long time ago, before there were companies, stores and buildings, there were some people who needed to work the land in the United States. There was a need for smart, strong workers-and they went to Africa and brought them to the United States against their will which wasn't OK. They were people, but they were called slaves. Those people made them work, but never paid them and they were never allowed to leave the plantations where they worked; it was very unfair. But there were also good people who were working to end slavery, Black and white people, and they were eventually successful.

Of course, this is an abbreviated version and you may need to add many more details, but you will have at least covered many of the main issues.

Once you get to the part of the story where you're explaining Juneteenth, you can tell children that during that time there were no things like TV or phones to communicate; information was written in letters and carried from one place to another on horses. Not everyone got the news at the same time that slavery had ended, so it took two years for people to find out about it in Texas. But on June 19, people in that state did learn about it.

Should this story be told in a different way to a Black child than it would to a white child?

The story I described can be told to anyone. However, a white family might need to explain more explicitly that it was white people who enslaved Black people. White families should also make sure to describe how there were many white people who were allies in the struggle who helped to abolish slavery. And, it's also important for white families to be prepared to answer questions if their children ask why white people enslaved Black people.

Why is it important to talk about Juneteenth?

Juneteenth gave people freedom but it also gave them hope, something they had been longing for for a long time. Telling this particular story offers an opportunity for kids to know how important it was for people who had been treated so badly for so long to begin to experience a whole new way of life - to be truly free - and that's always something to celebrate.

How early should families be talking about race with children?

This doesn't differ between white and Black families. One way to introduce the conversation is by reading picture books. They're an easy and obvious way to introduce kids to people who don't look like them. Children need to have these conversations because they are seeing what we refer to as racial differences early. By the time a child is 3 months old, they can already notice someone whose skin color is different from their primary caregivers, just by looking at faces. They look longer at the face of someone whose skin color looks like their primary caregiver at that age. But at 6 months, they spend a longer amount of time looking at someone whose face is different from them, for example someone who is darker than their primary caregiver.

As they grow and develop, kids are taking in all the information they get from everywhere in the world, including watching television, being engaged in local activities, the covers of magazines at the grocery story. They can put two and two together, but they don't always end up with four. If we don't talk to our kids, they often make their own sense of things on their own.

How might conversations about race look different for Black families and white families?

Black families should be consistently providing uplifting information for children. In the literature, it's called racial socialization: helping kids feel good about themselves as individuals, including their facial features and hair texture. It's important they understand they're part of a larger group of people who are part of their race and feel good about that, about the things those people created and the history of those people. The messages are more protective and can serve as a preventive measure that interrupts the process of them internalizing negative attitudes about themselves they can develop as a result of living in a racialized society.

For white families, it's important to do work that interrupts white children developing a false sense of racial superiority. Parents should be stifling the idea of racial superiority-and emphasizing that goodness, smartness or kindness is not assigned to a certain race of people.

What should parents be mindful of while teaching their kids about race and racism?

If a parent chooses not to talk about race with their kids, they should know that they're actually taking an action-being silent is taking action, just the wrong kind. When a child says something that may be racially unacceptable, parents should treat it like any other conversation that they may have with children and not react in ways that are extreme. They should not shush children when they ask questions. The conversation should be natural and comfortable so that children feel free to ask questions and sometimes make mistakes. Children will easily pick up if you're uncomfortable during these conversations, so it's better to be sure you're ready to have them rather than jump into them unprepared. Parents should talk with other adults about race and racial issues in order to feel comfortable and well prepared to have those conversations with their children.

What is the most important thing a parent can be doing right now during this moment in history?

Conversations are important. People may not think they're significant, but the absence of conversation is doing a whole lot of harm. Their child might have lots of questions they don't know how to ask. If you open up the dialogue, you'll be more likely to know more about what they've seen, what they're thinking about, what they're wondering about.

For example, their child may be extremely afraid of what they're seeing on the news. Even for parents who are very careful about what their children watch, they might come into the living room when you don't expect it. And they can still have concerns even if they've heard about these things secondhand. If you don't have a conversation with them, they may be scared to death.

Parents might want to open up the conversation by saying to their child: "We've never talked about this before, but I think now we need to as a family. There are lots of things happening with people protesting here in our city and in the country and I really would like to know what you're thinking or wondering about what's going on." Once they tell you, then, as a parent, you can help fill in the gaps, answer their questions and assure them that if they're worried or afraid, you'll help keep them as safe as possible.
This story has been updated.

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How to talk to children about Juneteenth

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June 19, or Juneteenth, is a holiday that commemorates the day that Texas, the last Confederate state, learned about the Emancipation Proclamation - marking the end of slavery in the United States in 1865. But as University of Pittsburgh historian Alaina Roberts notes, it's important to remember that the emancipation of slaves didn't actually happen in one fell swoop.