In the 160 years since Union troops arrived in Galveston and declared the end of slavery in Texas, Juneteenth has grown from a local observance into a national conversation - and now a federal holiday for a fourth year. As communities across the country prepare to mark the occasion, Rice University faculty are available to help news media explore the deeper histories behind Juneteenth, its Texas roots and what freedom has meant in different contexts over time.
Alexander Byrd, vice provost for the Office of Access and Institutional Excellence and associate professor of history, studies Black life in the Atlantic world and the Jim Crow South.
"Of the moments on our national calendar that encourage us to contemplate the nature, state and promise of American democracy, I look forward to Juneteenth the most," Byrd said.
Caleb McDaniel, the Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Humanities and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, researches 19th-century America, slavery, emancipation and Reconstruction.
"This year marks the 160th anniversary of the first Juneteenth," McDaniel said. "It is more important than ever to understand the meaning of our nation's newest federal holiday, particularly here in Texas where the earliest celebrations of the day occurred."
McDaniel is available to discuss the Civil War era, the evolution of Juneteenth and how its earliest celebrations in Texas shaped national observance.
Rice historian Portia Hopkins, a graduate of the University of Maryland's American studies program, has studied Juneteenth and how the news of freedom spread through Texas' Brazoria, Harris and Fort Bend counties. She can also speak to the decades-long grassroots effort to elevate Juneteenth to national recognition.
Fay Yarbrough, the William Gaines Twyman Professor of History and senior associate dean of faculty and graduate programs, teaches courses on the American Civil War, Native history, African American history and gender. She can speak to the historical significance of Juneteenth in 1865 including emancipation in Indian Territory, a dimension of the story often left out of popular retellings.
