Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and is the longest-running African-American holiday, celebrated since June 19, 1865. For many years, Juneteenth was celebrated within Black communities before becoming an official national holiday in 2021. 

History is all around us, of course, and we want to highlight a historic Black community– one of many of which survive and thrive through today. Plus, we’ve included some children's books to help history come alive.

Gee’s Bend, Alabama

After emancipation, many formerly enslaved Black people were faced with limited opportunities and stayed as sharecroppers at the plantations where they had been enslaved. The system of sharecropping left them perpetually in debt to the landowners and former enslavers. Gee’s Bend, Alabama was one such community. Named after the planter-enslaver Joseph Gee, the area was later owned by Mark H. Pettway, and many of the 20th-century residents shared his last name.

In the 1960s, the community rose to prominence as a county with an 80% Black population, but no registered Black voters–a result of Jim Crow-era laws restricting voting access for Black residents. On February 16, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. trekked to the remote corner of Alabama to speak to a packed crowd and encourage their fight for voting rights.  Mary Lee Bendolph and others braved violence to march with King in nearby Camden. Bendolph and 60 other women created the Freedom Quilting Bee which was a cooperative of quiltmakers who sold to large department store chains as a way of creating economic security for their community. The quilts created in Gee’s Bend have toured the country in blockbuster exhibits and appeared on U.S. postage stamps in 2006.