Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865 when Union army soldiers arrived in Galveston to announce the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery. It came almost two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and the day is now observed nationwide. It received a major boost in 1968, when, shortly after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, his Poor People’s Campaign held a Solidarity Day in Washington, D.C. on Juneteenth. And this year it resonates particularly loudly as Black Lives Matter protests continue to demand change across the country. Stay #GlobalFromHome by learning about the history of slavery and resistance in America through interactive exhibits, film and archival documents.
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READ
In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander explores the many ways Black Americans continue to struggle for freedom post-emancipation. She writes: “The criminal justice system was strategically employed to force African Americans back into a system of extreme repression and control, a tactic that would continue to prove successful for generations to come.” Buy the book to read more.
EXPLORE
This digital memorial—a multi-institution project based at Emory University—focuses on the trans-Atlantic slave trade and includes maps, a digital 3D rendering of a slave ship and a visceral time-lapse of the movement of slave ships across the Atlantic.
WATCH
In January 1839, 53 African slaves bound for Cuba on the cargo ship Amistad revolted against their captors. Led by a 25-year-old slave named Sengbe Pieh (or “Cinque” to his Spanish captors), they killed most of the crew and began the journey back to their homeland in West Africa. The ship was eventually seized by US authorities and the slaves charged with piracy and murder. The resulting court case, the subject of this free documentary, would change the course of history.
