When we talk about Juneteenth, sometimes called America's second Independence Day, what exactly are we talking about? How has the end of slavery been celebrated across time in Black communities? What political obligations does its commemoration bring to the fore? Join our hosts, Ebun Ajayi and Mélena Laudig, as they talk with Professor Joshua B. Guild about the past, present, and future of Juneteenth.
Note: At press time, both the Senate and House have passed a bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday. The bill is on President Biden’s desk.
Episode Notes
The Culture of __
- “Celebrating Juneteenth,” ABC News, June 19, 2020
- Joshua Gargiulo, “Fact check: Barack Obama mentioned Juneteenth multiple times while president,” USA Today, June 28, 2020
- Jeanine Santuci, “'I made Juneteenth very famous': Trump takes credit for holiday celebrating Emancipation Proclamation,” USA Today, June 18, 2020
- “What Is Juneteenth? Dulcé Sloan Explains,” The Daily (Social Distancing) Show, June 19, 2020
- “What Juneteenth tells us about the value of black life in America,” The Washington Post, June 19, 2020
The Breakdown - Guest Info
Prof. Joshua B. Guild
Professor Guild is Associate Professor of History and African American Studies at Princeton University. He specializes in twentieth-century African American social and cultural history, urban history, and the making of the modern African diaspora, with particular interests in migration, black internationalism, black popular music, and the black radical tradition. His research has been supported by fellowships and awards from a number of institutions, including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. His first book, In the Shadows of the Metropolis: Cultural Politics and Black Communities in Postwar New York and London, will be published by Oxford University Press.
See, Hear, Do
- Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth(link is external) (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2021)
- Spotlight: Juneteenth at the New York Public Library(link is external)
Podcast Transcript
Coming soon.