"Juneteenth is the commemoration of African American Independence Day. On this June 19th, we celebrate the 140th anniversary of slaves in Galveston, Texas learning of the Emancipation Proclamation, some eighteen months after its effective date, and we reflect on the unheralded contributions of slaves to this nation's history."
- James E. Clyburn U.S. House of Representatives
Envisioning emancipation : Black Americans and the end of slavery by 
Hidden Black history : from Juneteenth to redlining by 
Juneteenth Texas: Essays in African-American Folklore by 
This video was created by members of the Anti-Racism Task Force Multimedia Subcommittee at SUNY Cortland. It features the voice of Khalia Banks 13' and an interview with Tunde Agboke.
The sculpture on the left was designed by Augusta Savage, an African-American artist paying tribute to James Weldon Johnson's Lift Every Voice and Sing, also known as the Black National Anthem. The sculpture was created for the 1939 Worlds Fair held in New York City.
While the original title of the piece was named after Johnson's song, the officials at the World's Fair actually renamed it to simply "the Harp." The strings on the harp represent people in a choir while the large hand, or soundboard, represents the hand of God. For more information on the artist, sculpture, and archival photographs, see the links below.
“Lift Every Voice and Sing“ Alicia Keys performance w/ narration by Anthony Mackie.
James Weldon Johnson was a an artist, poet, songwriter, novelist, activist, Executive Secretary for NCAAP, and a lawyer. He was first African-American lawyer in the state of Florida. in 1899 he wrote Lift Every Voice and Sing, and his brother Rosamond put it to music. Johnson also produced God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse and The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man.
