Cal Maritime Library News

The Cal Maritime Library will be closed Tuesday, July 4, 2023, for Independence Day.

Want to learn more about the history, challenges and nature of democracy in the United States? Check out our new collection, "Democracy in America"!!

We will be open from 9-4 Monday, July 3 and again Wednesday-Friday, July 5-7. 

June 19, 1865, two years after President Abraham Lincoln presented the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, slaves in confederate states finally received word that they were free.

Freedom is a thread, and a fight, woven through this nation's history and current political climate. Continue to take action to celebrate and ensure true freedom for all through awareness of racial disparities, mobilization, and bold actions necessary to further the fight for social justice and equal opportunity. (Sianna Brito.) To learn more, visit the NAACP's Juneteenth page or NPR's article on How to celebrate Juneteenth in the age of commercialization. 

Local Events

Join the 33rd Annual Vallejo Juneteenth Festival & Parade on Saturday, June 17, 9 am to 5 pm!

Learn about Juneteenth activities and resources at the Solano County Library!

Reading List

Check out this reading list from the National Museum of African American History & Culture or stop by the Cal Maritime Library for the following books.

Juneteenth: Fact Sheet by U.S. Congressional Documents

Call Number: E-resource 
Publication Date: 2018-2023
This government document provides an overview of of the history and legislation around this day.

Juneteenth (Revised) by Ralph Ellison
Call Number: PS3555.L625 J86 2021

Publication Date: 2021

Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth is brilliantly crafted, moving, and wise. Ellison tells a powerful, evocative tale of a prodigal of the twentieth century.

Juneteenth: The Story Behind the Celebration by Edward T. Cotham; Edward T. Cotham

Call Number: E-book

Publication Date: 2021

Juneteenth is as a national day celebrating the end of slavery. Where did this celebration come from? What is the origin story? What are the facts, and legends, around this important day in the nation's history? Learn all of this and more.

 

 

Envisioning Emancipation by Deborah Willis; Barbara Krauthamer

Call Number: E185.2 .W68 2013

ISBN: 9781439909850

Publication Date: 2012

The authors vividly display the seismic impact of emancipation on African Americans born before and after the Proclamation, providing a perspective on freedom and slavery and a way to understand the photos as documents of engagement, action, struggle, and aspiration.

On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

Call Number: E185.93.T4 G67 2021

Publication Date: 2021

Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth provides a historian's view of the country's long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond.

Is a book display going to change a world where the voices promoting anti-LGBTQI+ legislation, rhetoric, violence and intolerance are loud, and seem to be getting louder every day? Not so likely. Still, we'd like to share some books and films to say that acceptance and love are the future, so let's make them the present. Consider stopping by the library, or picking up a title at your local library if you aren't nearby! You can find the full reading list for Pride 2023 on our Reading Lists guide.