In her book On Juneteenth, author, lawyer, and historian Annette Gordon-Reed writes that loving a place does not mean being uncritical of it: “We can’t be of real service to the hopes we have for places – and people, ourselves included – without a clear-eyed assessment of their (and our) strengths and weaknesses.” 

For a young nation like the United States, she says, reckoning with a history of slavery and racial injustice is a slow and painful – but necessary – process. “It’s something that can’t be forced. It's the process of evolution,” she told an audience of students on Thursday at Memorial Auditorium. 

On Juneteenth is a memoir that combines American history with personal anecdotes about Gordon-Reed’s life and family to tell the story of Juneteenth, the federally recognized holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States. The book explores the holiday’s origins in Texas and the challenge of African Americans to be seen fully as citizens. The book, one of this academic year’s selections for the Three Books program, was assigned to the winter COLLEGE course Citizenship in the 21st Century, which asks students to consider what it means to be a citizen of a place. 

“Her story gives us the opportunity to discuss how citizenship is shaped by the stories that people tell, the opportunity to discuss who is and who is not part of a community, and what a community's goals and values are, and the opportunity to reflect on how we as individuals contribute to our communities, and what we get in return,” said Provost Jenny Martinez in her introduction. 

The event featured a discussion with Gordon-Reed, moderated by Anne Twitty, associate professor of history in the School of Humanities and Sciences, followed by a question-and-answer session with students.

A citizen of Texas 

In January 1865, two years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery. However, many in Confederate territory remained enslaved, including in Texas. On June 19, Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, to enforce the freedom of the remaining 250,000 enslaved Black people. The day became known as “Juneteenth” – a portmanteau of “June” and “nineteenth”. Gordon-Reed’s book recounts the origins of the holiday with a particular focus on her home state of Texas. 

On Juneteenth was conceived and written at Gordon-Reed’s home in New York during the COVID-19 pandemic, which she said gave her time to think about her family’s history. Gordon-Reed, a descendant of enslaved people brought to Texas as early as the 1820s, said that although her parents grew up during segregation, they, like many Americans, felt a sense of hopefulness after World War II –  “The kind of post-war optimism and sense that the world was going to change.” 

The role of law 

Gordon-Reed received a law degree from Harvard, where she is currently a professor of history. In her book she writes that while laws govern what is permitted or prohibited in society, the law alone cannot change people’s attitudes: “The law might say that I could go into a school or into a store, but it could not be sure that I would be welcome when I came into these places.” 

In response to a question posed by Twitty about whether laws are limited to providing a foundation for society to live by, thereby leaving it up to citizens to create norms, Gordon-Reed said the law can play a more active role. “The law is aspirational,” she said. “Being able to use law to affect change is something that my students very, very much believe in.” 

She noted that, unlike citizens of other countries, Americans don’t have a national religion or race or a thousand years of shared history to bind them.

“What we have are these rules that we're supposed to live by, and we agree to live by it,” she said. “And it's a way to transform society, but it's also a way of keeping stability in the society. That balance is something we're always trying to strike.” 

An open society 

On Juneteenth addresses the dangers of a one-sided education and cherry-picking history. During the question-and-answer portion of the event, a student said that books had been banned in his home state of Idaho and at his high school and asked Gordon-Reed for her take on the issue. 

“People who are opposed to censorship have to come out and have to stand up to this kind of thing,” she said.

Living in a democracy is often contentious, she said, but citizens can't let a few determine what life should be like for all. 

She encouraged students to use their Stanford education to ensure their fellow citizens have opportunities. “You have a responsibility to take what you learn here and the opportunities that you have here, to make sure that society remains open, that the values that have led to the creation of a place like this remain open for the next generation,” she said.