A Juneteenth Reading List: 16 Great Books About the Holiday vulture.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from vulture.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As a child growing up in Galveston, Barry Davis mostly looked forward to annual Juneteenth celebrations for the barbecue, hot dogs and festivities. Now, as interim director of the Brazos
On Sept. 22, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, abolishing slavery in the United States; however, it took almost two years for all enslaved peoples to get word that they were free. Troops delivered the news in June of 1865, finally liberating the last of the enslaved African American people of the 19th Century. Today, this celebration of Black Independence Day is known as “Juneteenth,” and it has become a widely-recognized celebration in African American communities across the United States, and as of last year, is now a federal holiday. Fifty years ago in San Diego, Sidney Cooper Sr. opened a string of small businesses housed in one storefront in Southeast San Diego, in one of the largest historically African American neighborhoods. As a businessman and a member of the community, Sidney felt passionately about countering the devastating effects that centuries of oppression had imposed on his neighborhood. As a man of character and compassion, he wanted to