My Face is Black is True, by Mary Frances Berry If they go in assuming they're not racist, they'll miss the point,' Patterson says.Īssistant Professor of Africana Studies at Howard University 'For white readers, they have to approach the text by suspending every assumption that they have about race, racism, the criminal justice system and American institutions more generally. 'I think that it's very relevant at this historical moment.' In Chokehold, Butler, a law professor at Georgetown University and a former federal prosecutor, 'makes the case that the criminal justice system is predicated on being unjust, and that criminalizing black people is at the heart of that injustice,' Patterson says. Professor of African American Studies at Georgetown UniversityĬhokehold: Policing Black Men, by Paul Butler News4's Meagan Fiztgerald has a closer look at the history of Juneteenth. It marks the day that slaves in Texas learned they were free. The holiday is mostly observed in Southern states. Patterson is one of several local educators who have shared their book recommendations with NBC Washington in the hopes of offering insight on this important holiday and how it relates to ongoing protests against systemic racism.Īmid nationwide protests to end racial injustice in America, more people are aware of Juneteenth than ever. 'They allow for the possibility of reimagining, rethinking and developing empathy.'

And I think the imagination is an important space to think differently about issues,' Patterson says. ' have an interpretive element that builds on the imagination.

Patterson, who teaches courses on race and racism in the criminal justice system, says his hope for Juneteenth 2020 is that people will use reading as a way to continue 'interrogating the ways that institutions have produced inequities.' Patterson, professor of African American Studies at Georgetown University. 'I think the lack of information around Juneteenth represents a larger marginalization of Black history and Black culture in American society,' says Dr.

Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, the day when enslaved people in Texas and other Confederate states were informed of their freedom, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln. While recent demonstrations spurred by the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have forced Americans to come to terms with racial inequities in the U.S., they have also brought overdue recognition to historical moments like Juneteenth.

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