UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In celebration of Juneteenth National Independence Day on Wednesday, June 19, Penn State University Libraries offers a listing of resources, including books, articles, films, artifacts, exhibits and more that uplift those voices — throughout history and today — who celebrate African American culture and promote the work of dismantling racism, with the intention of providing educational resources and continued dialogue.
What began as a celebration of the end of slavery in Texas, Juneteenth — an amalgamation of the words "June" and "nineteenth" — has become a national holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people throughout the United States. Also called Jubilation Day or Freedom Day, Juneteenth refers to the Monday in 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the liberation of America’s more than 3 million enslaved people.
In 2019, Pennsylvania recognized June 19 as Juneteenth National Freedom Day, and in June 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law an act designating June 19 as Juneteenth National Independence Day, a federally observed holiday.
Today, Juneteenth is celebrated with picnics and parties, but the deeper meaning to the day serves as a keen reminder of our shared American history of oppression and slavery.
The following list gathers resources to amplify the voices and scholarship of Black and African American people and communities, available as links from the University Libraries, its partners and affiliates. It is by no means exhaustive, but serves as a starting point:
- Eberly Family Special Collections Library: "Where Beauty's At": Expressions of Black Visual Culture, exhibition runs through Sept. 9, 104 Paterno Library on the University Park campus, and explores historical and creative works by Black writers and artists and considers the relationship between history, politics, creativity and visual expression.
- “A Mighty Long Way”: Black Representation in American Politics digital exhibit, highlighting many African Americans who have held office or made an impact on the American Political system; #LovecraftCountry: Primary Sources and Published Materials at Penn State digital exhibit, which takes visitors through the HBO show, episode by episode, and focuses on the Black and LGBTQIA+ creators and experiences; and Black Student Alumni Oral History Project, a narrative of the experiences of Black students at Penn State from 1969 to 1971.
- Charles L. Blockson Collection of African-Americana and the African Diaspora: A multidisciplinary collection comprised of books, magazines, photographs, manuscripts, sheet music, postcards, record albums and artifacts of the African experience in the United States, Latin America, Caribbean and Africa, dating from 1632 to the present, including a robust program of panels and presentations related to histories reflected in the collection.
- African Diaspora 1860-Present database: A global collection including 100,000 pages of primary sources, rare books, government documents, letters, periodicals, videos and more. An essential resource for understanding Black history and culture, the database highlights the migrations, communities and ideologies of the African Diaspora through the voices of people of African Descent.
- Black History and Visual Culture digital collection: Compelling visual materials that celebrate and remember Black life on Penn State’s campuses, in the broader United States and around the world. The digitized materials serve as helpful surrogates in teaching, research and experiential learning, and include content that encourages interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Colored Conventions Project: An interdisciplinary research hub that uses digital tools to bring the buried history of 19th-century Black organizing to life. Mirroring the collective nature of the 19th-century Colored Conventions, CCP uses innovative, inclusive partnerships to locate, transcribe and archive the documentary record related to this nearly forgotten history and to curate engaging digital exhibits that highlight its significant events and themes. The Colored Conventions Project is part of the new Center for Black Digital Research, a collaboration of the College of the Liberal Arts and the University Libraries.
- African American Studies LibGuide: A library guide to resources helpful for research in African American Studies.
- Black Lives Matter LibGuide: A library guide serving as a centralized resource for information about historical and current discrimination of African Americans in the United States, Pennsylvania and the Greater Philadelphia Region. Created by the Libraries’ faculty and staff at Vairo Library at Penn State Brandywine.
- Dozens of African American studies titles available through Penn State University Press, the publishing arm of the University, including "A Black Philadelphia Reader," edited by Louis J. Parascandola, published this year.
- The Penn State Africana Research Center’s annual Barbara Jordan Lecture and Nelson Mandela Lecture: To recognize and introduce the Penn State community to the scholarship of African American civil rights activists.
- Penn State Educational Activism Archive: Documenting a century of student and faculty voices for change, including artifacts from the Eberly Family Special Collections Archive and protest categories for race and social justice, antiwar protest, LGBTQ advocacy, women’s rights, organized labor and activism today.
- Race and Diversity in America LibGuide: A resource list compiled by faculty and staff of Montague Law Library at Penn State Dickinson Law with links for race relations, African American history and the law.
- The George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center: A unique resource for interpreting and reflecting on life in 19th-century America, with a focus on slavery, war, the freedom struggle, and their contemporary legacies. The center is also home to The Journal of the Civil War Era and The People’s Contest, a Civil War-era digital archive to promote research into the lived experience of Pennsylvanians between 1851 and 1874, including a unique statewide bibliographic database of hidden collections, digitized manuscripts and contextual essays. The archival website is a collaborative project of the Richards Center and the University Libraries.
- Democracy Works podcast: From Penn State College of the Liberal Arts’ McCourtney Institute for Democracy, a network of podcasts that examine what’s broken in the nation's democracy and how people can work together to fix it.
In addition to many Black studies and DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility) titles, and Black historical newspapers currently being added to the Libraries’ catalog, the University Libraries’ Curator for African American Collections plays a key and collaborative role in building, stewarding, supporting research and teaching, and promoting use and engagement with collections documenting African American life and culture in all faculty, and Libraries’ faculty and staff.
Juneteenth's significance is indisputable to the historical record, and its observation serves as both a remembrance of shared pain as well as a celebration of freedom and life for — and about — Black Americans. The above resources are offered to invite dialogue, for continued scholarship and academic research about issues of race and equality.