Scan barcode
A review by knod78
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
4.0
I grew up in Texas and have known about Juneteenth most of my life. It's always been funny to me when people didn't know about Juneteenth. Like the author, I also got defensive of people outside of Texas claiming like they knew about Juneteenth and that it was there's too after George Floyd's death. As a white person growing up in Houston, we received a filtered version of what this holiday was to African Americans; we knew just the basic facts. Companies wouldn't allow most of us to take this as a holiday, which was fine with me, because I didn't feel it was right for me to intrude. But it also gave way for comments from other people that it was a made up holiday. I didn't think so, because I knew the importance and just carried on with my life. However, I wanted to read more about Juneteenth; I wanted to dive into everything surrounding before, during, and after. And I would only read from a Texas born author who grew up celebrating this holiday.
I will say that this is a very short book and only two chapters really talk about Juneteenth. This is why the book got four stars from me. Otherwise, I would have given it five stars. Annette Gordan-Reed is a really great writer and the stories of her personal life mixed so perfectlly with the history that she told. She was spot on about how we learned Texas History; it wasn't about slavery. Even with the short amount of pages, I did learn quite a lot. I only wished either the book was longer or it just focused on Juneteenth, because I still didn't feel like I was there if that makes sense. I did learn more about the Freedom Bureau and I didn't realize General Howard was the creator of Howard University.
With that, I highly recommend this book, especially about Texas history when it comes to well, everything. It's a quick read, but you get enough to burst the bubble. And you will learn some more about Juneteenth that you haven't before.
I will say that this is a very short book and only two chapters really talk about Juneteenth. This is why the book got four stars from me. Otherwise, I would have given it five stars. Annette Gordan-Reed is a really great writer and the stories of her personal life mixed so perfectlly with the history that she told. She was spot on about how we learned Texas History; it wasn't about slavery. Even with the short amount of pages, I did learn quite a lot. I only wished either the book was longer or it just focused on Juneteenth, because I still didn't feel like I was there if that makes sense. I did learn more about the Freedom Bureau and I didn't realize General Howard was the creator of Howard University.
With that, I highly recommend this book, especially about Texas history when it comes to well, everything. It's a quick read, but you get enough to burst the bubble. And you will learn some more about Juneteenth that you haven't before.