Presented in partnership with Town Hall

In conversation with South Seattle Emerald’s Marcus Harrison Green, Annette Gordon-Reed weaves together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir chronicled in her book On Juneteenth.

She recounts the origins of the date in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured since and explains how, from the earliest presence of Black people in Texas, African-Americans played an integral role in the state’s story. She demonstrates that the slave- and race-based economy not only defined the fractious era of Texas independence but indeed caused the Mexican-American and Civil Wars.

Don’t miss this urgent program for an essential revision of conventional renderings of history, one that starkly reminds us that the fight for equality is demanding and ongoing.