In honor of Juneteenth, this month we’re reading On Juneteenth by Harvard professor and Texas native Annette Gordon-Reed. While her research and publications cover an impressive range of topics, she has won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. Her extensive research into Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and the Hemings children informs On Juneteenth, too.
Gordon-Reed discusses the importance of Juneteenth, the place of Texas in American history, Texas’ often larger-than-life origin stories, and the ways that studying history can complicate and challenge the myths people tell about the past.
Discussion Questions
What is Juneteenth? Why does an event that happened in Texas have significance for the rest of the United States? Why does Gordon-Reed say, “All the major currents of American history flow through Texas” (p. 29)?
What stereotypes about Texas and Texans does Gordon-Reed describe? What stereotypes do you have of Texans? Are they similar?
What motives does she ascribe to her parents for sending her to a predominantly White elementary school? What were her experiences there? How does she use those experiences to reflect on the role of education in the Black community and on broader issues surrounding de-segregation?
What are some of the problems and losses she identifies with integration?
What are origin stories? What role do they serve in helping develop identity? What origin stories does Gordon-Reed share about Texas and about African-Americans in the United States? How do those stories complicate the narratives usually taught in schools?
How does she use W.E.B. DuBois’ idea of double consciousness to discuss the identities of Black Americans and Black Texans? Why does she conclude at the end of Chapter 5 that her identities as a Black person and a Texan “are not in opposition” (p. 117)? Were you surprised by this conclusion? Why or why not?
What history does Gordon-Reed provide about Jim Bowie and other heroes of the Alamo? Were you surprised to learn any of this? What does she say about Emily West and the role she may have played in the struggle for Texan independence from Mexico?
What challenge does she identify in the project of incorporating the histories of people of color into Texan origin stories? How does she handle this challenge?
She closes the book by explaining why she still loves her home state, despite its history. How does this definition of love allow for complexity and ambiguity? Why does challenging origin stories that are historically inaccurate and that ignore real injustices become an act of love?
What history did you learn from this book that you didn’t know? Why don’t you think those events were taught in the schools you attended?
Gordon-Reed doesn’t address racial gaps in homeownership, redlining, and other topics that directly relate to Habitat’s work. How does this book inform or relate to our mission to ensure that everyone has access to decent, affordable housing? Why do you think we chose this title?
Habitat for Humanity’s Work
By Patricia Abbate
Equity Focused Programs Manager
For more than 40 years, Habitat for Humanity has worked toward a world where everyone has a decent place to live. Our ministry began at Koinonia Farm, a racially integrated working farm founded in 1942 outside of Americus, Georgia, and we remain committed to working to advance racial equity. Many families, and Black Americans in particular, face obstacles to homeownership due to the lingering effects of racially discriminatory housing policies.
Read Habitat for Humanity’s Two-Year Report on Advancing Black Homeownership in the United States (PDF).
