An Afternoon With Author Annette Gordon-Reed In-Person
Join us for an afternoon with Harvard Professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annette Gordon-Reed. In her book, On Juneteenth, the historian and Texas native examines the Lone Star State roots of Juneteenth and its continuing importance to the fight for racial equity. Moderating a conversation with the author is celebrated journalist Melanie Lawson.
This event is free and open to the public. Registration is strongly encouraged.
Place a hold On Juneteenth through the library's catalog
Check out other titles about Juneteenth
Books will be sold on-site by Kindred Stories.
Parking is free on Saturdays at the Central Library.
- Date:
- Saturday, June 11, 2022
- Time:
- 2:00pm - 3:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Central Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- Auditorium (1st Floor)
- Locations:
- Julia Ideson Building
- Age Group:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Author Talks / Book Clubs Holidays & Observances
About the Author:
Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. Gordon-Reed has won sixteen book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2009 and the National Book Award in 2008 for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton, 2008). She lives in New York and Cambridge.
About the Moderator:
Award-winning journalist Melanie Lawson is the anchor of Live at 5 and ABC13's midday show, Eyewitness News at 11 a.m. She has been honored as the YWCA's "Outstanding Women of the Year," and has lifetime achievement awards from the Houston Press Club, Houston Community College, Women in Film and Television, and the Houston Association of Black Journalists.
This program is sponsored by the Houston Public Library Foundation.
Praise for the Book:
New York Times • Times Critics Top Books of 2021
Best Books of the Year • Washington Post, TIME, NPR, Oprah Daily, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Kansas City Independent, Los Angeles Public Library, Washington Independent Review of Books, Spy, Audile, Biblioracle, AbeBooks
This beautifully written memoir makes the case that the history of Black Texas is central to the history of the United States. Gordon-Reed’s writing will move all readers of U.S. history.
—Library Journal, starred review
As Juneteenth morphs from a primarily Texan celebration of African American freedom to a proposed national holiday, Gordon-Reed urges Texans and all Americans to reflect critically on this tangled history. A remarkable meditation on the history and folk mythology of Texas from an African American perspective.
—Booklist, starred review
The slim 140-page volume is almost like a pocket constitution, and I could see it having a life in classrooms as well as in the hands of lay readers of history.... A compelling counter-narrative to familiar stories of [Texas]’s origins.
—Texas Observer