On Juneteenth

"Every person tempted to hyperventilate over fake controversies involving critical race theory should read this book. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed mingles her groundbreaking personal story – she was the first Black student to desegregate schools in her hometown of Conroe, Texas – with a less white-centered version of the state’s history to create a new narrative. Shifting away from myths aimed at comforting white people, she reveals a truth that includes everyone, especially those freed by the official emancipation of enslaved people in the state on June 19, 1865. Along the way, Gordon-Reed notes Texas’ long-ago legacy in breaking away from Mexico to preserve its status as a slaveholder’s republic. Her story challenges Texas’ pop culture image as a land of heroic, mostly white cowboys to suggest a more complicated vision that mirrors America’s fitful history on race, equality and society."