Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
Join us in June as we celebrate this annual Day of Jubilee, all month long!
Check out our reading lists and resources and enjoy our in-person and virtual programs in honor of this important day in U.S. history.
All Queens Public Library locations will be closed on Friday, June 19 in observance of Juneteenth.
Herstory in Motion: Honoring Dr. Opal Lee
Juneteenth Books: Adult Fiction
Juneteenth Books: Adult Nonfiction
Juneteenth Books: Young Adult Fiction
Juneteenth Books: Young Adult Nonfiction
Juneteenth Books: Children's Fiction
Juneteenth Books: Children's Nonfiction
Herstory in Motion: Honoring Dr. Opal Lee
Dr. Opal Lee is known as "The Grandmother of Juneteenth" because her activism helped Juneteenth become a federal holiday. Ms. Opal will also celebrate her 100th birthday this October!
Join us at Langston Hughes Library on Tuesday, June 16 at 5:45pm for a special conversation and movie trailer screening with QPL President & CEO Dennis M. Walcott, Dione Sims (the granddaughter of Opal Lee), and filmmaker Laura Williams. Hear inspiring stories about Opal Lee’s legacy and the women continuing the fight for freedom!
Learn More about Dr. Opal Lee in the special section at the end of our 2026 Juneteenth Brochure.
Juneteenth Programs
Join us for QPL’s Juneteenth programs for all ages, including arts and crafts, author talks, concerts, conversations, storytimes, and much more!
Here is a selection of our Juneteenth programs. Visit the QPL Calendar to see the full list!
Click on the links below for more information.
Juneteenth: The Ebony Hillbillies (In-Person)
Thursday, June 4, 6:30pm
Langston Hughes Library
100-01 Northern Boulevard, Corona
***
Juneteenth: A Celebration of Food and Tradition (Virtual)
Monday, June 8, 6pm
Join us on Zoom: https://queenslib.org/4sPmNiF
Meeting ID: 874 0716 7327
Passcode: 625079
***
Juneteenth: Resistance & Resilience in Black Women’s Literature with Dr. Brenda M. Greene (Virtual)
Thursday, June 11, 2pm
Join us on Zoom: https://queenslib.org/3QeP8ku
Meeting ID: 811 8047 9858
Passcode: 111427
***
Juneteenth: Innovation Stations: The Cloth We Keep (In-Person)
Thursday, June 11, 3:30pm
Peninsula Library
92-25 Rockaway Beach Boulevard, Rockaway Beach
***
Juneteenth: "The Last Black Cowboys in NYC" Documentary Screening (In-Person)
Friday, June 12, 3pm
Central Library
89-11 Merrick Boulevard, Jamaica
***
A Juneteenth Celebration with Alphonso Horne & Friends (In-Person)
Friday, June 12, 3:30pm
Elmhurst Library
86-07 Broadway
***
Food for Life: African American Culinary Heritage (In-Person & Virtual)
Tuesday, June 16, 11am
Central Library
89-11 Merrick Boulevard, Jamaica
Thursday, June 18, 6pm
Join us on Zoom: https://queenslib.org/4vyu8
Meeting ID: 828 4202 8833
Passcode: 148490
***
Juneteenth: Hip Hop Celebration with Batingua Arts Dance and Drum Productions (In-Person)
Tuesday, June 16, 5pm
Langston Hughes Library
100-01 Northern Boulevard, Corona
Thursday, June 18, 6pm
Central Library
89-11 Merrick Boulevard, Jamaica
***
Juneteenth Jubilee with Mozart for Munchkins (In-Person)
Thursday, June 18, 4pm
East Elmhurst Library
95-06 Astoria Boulevard
***
Juneteenth: Literary Thursdays: Michelle Coles, Author of Black Was the Ink (Virtual)
Thursday, June 18, 6pm
Join us on Microsoft Teams: https://queenslib.org/4t9kirz
***
Juneteenth & Black Music Celebration! (In-Person)
Saturday, June 20, 12pm
Langston Hughes Library
100-01 Northern Boulevard, Corona
***
Juneteenth: The Blues Black and White (In-Person)
Sunday, June 28, 2:30pm
Central Library
89-11 Merrick Boulevard, Jamaica
***
Juneteenth Booklists
Adult Fiction
Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Yonder by Jabari Asim
Book │ Audiobook
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora
Book │ Audiobook
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook │ Graphic Novel │ Graphic Novel (eBook)
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehesi Coates
Book │ Audiobook
Black Cloud Rising by David Wright Faladé
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
Book │ eBook
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Book │ eBook
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.
Book │ Audiobook
The Fallen Fruit by Shawntelle Madison
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Moonrise Over New Jessup by Jamila Minnicks
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer
Book │ Audiobook
The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes
Jubilee by Margaret Walker
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Book │ Audiobook
Adult Nonfiction
Juneteenth Texas: Essays in African-American Folklore by Francis E. Abernethy, Patrick B. Mullen, and Alan B. Govenar
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership by Brea Baker
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Remembering Slavery by Ira Berlin
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
Book │ eBook
Galveston's Juneteenth Story: And Still We Rise by Tommie Boudreaux, Alice Gatson,
Jami Durham, and W. Dwayne Jones
Getting to Reparations: How Building a Different America Requires a Reckoning with Our Past by Dorothy A. Brown
Shut Up and Read: A Memoir from Harriett’s Bookshop by Jeannine A. Cook
Book │ eBook
Juneteenth: The Story Behind the Celebration by Edward Cotham
Book │ eBook
The War Before the War by Andrew Delbanco
Black Reconstruction in America by W. E. B. Du Bois
Book │ eBook
She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Book │ Audiobook
The Survivors of the Clotilda: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave Trade by Hannah Durkin
Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction by Eric Foner
The Second Founding by Eric Foner
Being Black in America's Schools: A Student-Educator-Reformer's Call for Change
by Brian Rashad Fuller
Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow
by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America by Jessica B. Harris
Book │ eBook
Barracoon: The Story of the Last 'Black Cargo' by Zora Neale Hurston
Book │ Audiobook
Black Genius: Essays on an American Legacy by Tre Johnson
Book │ eBook
To Raise Up a Nation: John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and the Making of a Free Country (eBook) by William S. King
American Inheritance by Edward J. Larson
The Failed Promise by Robert S. Levine
Black Ghost of Empire by Kris Manjapra
Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America by W. Caleb McDaniel
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
by Heather McGhee
Book │ Audiobook
Sleeping with the Ancestors by Joseph McGill Jr. and Herb Frazier
Book │ eBook
All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
Of Greed and Glory: In Pursuit of Freedom for All by Deborah G. Plant
The Last Slave Ship by Ben Raines
Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley
How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith
Book │ Audiobook
Watermelon & Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations by Nicole A. Taylor
Freedom's Children by Velma Maia Thomas
Lest We Forget (eBook) by Velma Maia Thomas
Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Young Adult Fiction
There Goes the Neighborhood by Jade Adia
Book │ eBook
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party
by M. T. Anderson
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
The Deep Blue Between by Ayesha Harruna Attah
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Crossing Ebenezer Creek by Tonya Bolden
Book │ eBook
Inventing Victoria by Tonya Bolden
Book │ eBook
Black Was the Ink by Michelle Coles
Book │ eBook
Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper
Book │ Audiobook
Dream Country by Shannon Gibney
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
The Color of a Lie by Kim Johnson
Book │ Audiobook
This Is My America by Kim Johnson
African Town by Irene Latham and Charles Waters
Book │ Audiobook
And We Rise: The Civil Rights Movement in Poems by Erica Martin
Book │ Audiobook
Riot by Walter Dean Myers
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
You Bet Your Heart by Danielle Parker
Book │ eBook
Come Juneteenth by Ann Rinaldi
Book │ eBook
The Awakening of Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Tiffany D. Jackson
Book │ Audiobook
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Book │ Audiobook
Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
A Sitting in St. James by Rita Williams-Garcia
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Young Adult Nonfiction
Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert
Book │ Audiobook
Passenger on the Pearl by Winifred Conkling
Book │ eBook
In The Shadow of Liberty by Kenneth C. Davis
Book │ Audiobook
Unequal: A Story of America by Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau
Book │ Audiobook
Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself
by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge
This Book Is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell
Book │ eBook
March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
Book One │ Book Two │ Book Three │ Trilogy Slipcase Set
Poemhood: Our Black Revival: History, Folklore & the Black Experience: A Young Adult Poetry Anthology
edited by Amber McBride, Taylor Byas, and Erica Martin
The Sum of Us (Adapted for Young Readers): How Racism Hurts Everyone by Heather McGhee
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
Book | eBook │ Audiobook
A Long Time Coming: A Lyrical Biography of Race in America from Ona Judge to Barack Obama
by Ray Anthony Shepard and R. Gregory Christie
Children's Fiction
The Night Before Freedom: A Juneteenth Story by Glenda Armand and Corey Barksdale
Juneteenth for Mazie by Floyd Cooper
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Freedom Celebration: A Juneteenth Party by Angela Dalton and Keisha Morris
Book │ eBook
Juneteenth: A Picture Book for Kids Celebrating Black Joy by Van G. Garrett, Reginald C. Adams, and Samson Bimbo Adenugba
Book │ eBook
Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens and Monica Mikai
Book │ eBook
All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson and E.B. Lewis
Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Robin Hill School: Juneteenth by Margaret McNamara, Sibylla Nash, and Mike Gordon
Book │ eBook
Tell Me About Juneteenth by Kortney Nash and DeAndra Hodge
Book │ eBook
All Good in the Hood by Dwayne Reed and Gladys Jose
Annie and Juneteenth by Aletta Seales and Artkina Celestin
A Flag for Juneteenth by Kim Taylor
Book │ eBook
Juneteenth Is by Natasha Tripplett and Daniel J. O'Brien
Juneteenth Jamboree by Carole Boston Weatherford and Yvonne Buchanan
Book │ eBook
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Children's Nonfiction
The Juneteenth Cookbook: Recipes and Activities for Kids and Families to Celebrate by Alliah L. Agostini, Taffy Elrod, and Sawyer Cloud
Book │ eBook
Juneteenth by R.J. Bailey
Book │ eBook
The American Civil War in Texas by Johanna Burke
Let's Celebrate Emancipation Day & Juneteenth by Barbara deRubertis
Book │ eBook
Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth
by Alice Faye Duncan and Keturah A. Bobo
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
Celebrate the World: Juneteenth by Hannah Eliot and Tequitia Andrews
Book │ eBook
They Built Me for Freedom: The Story of Juneteenth and Houston's Emancipation Park
by Tonya Duncan Ellis and Jenin Mohammed
Hidden Black History: From Juneteenth to Redlining by Amanda Jackson Green
Book │ eBook
Barracoon: Adapted for Young Readers by Zora Neale Hurston, Ibram X. Kendi, and Jazzmen Lee-Johnson
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
What Is Juneteenth? by Kirsti Jewel
Book │ Audiobook
Traditional African American Arts & Activities by Sonya Kimble-Ellis
Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad
by Ellen Levine and Kadir Nelson
Book │ Audiobook
She Persisted: Opal Lee by Shelia P. Moses and Gillian Flint
Book │ eBook
Juneteenth by Julie Murray
Book │ eBook
Juneteenth by Lynn Peppas
Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
Free at Last: A Juneteenth Poem by Sojourner Kincaid Rolle and Alex Bostic
The Real History of Juneteenth by Elliott Smith
Book │ eBook
Stories of the Spirit of Justice by Jemar Tisby
Your Legacy: A Bold Reclaiming of Our Enslaved History by Schele Williams and Tonya Engel
Book │ eBook │ Audiobook
African-American Holidays by Faith Winchester
Juneteenth (Racial Justice in America: Histories) by Kevin P. Winn and Kelisa Wing
Book │ eBook
Juneteenth: Our Day of Freedom by Sharon Dennis Wyeth and Kim Holt
Book │ Audiobook
So Many Years: A Juneteenth Story by Anne Wynter and Jerome Pumphrey
Book │ Audiobook
This image appeared on an 1865 recruitment poster encouraging African American men to join the Union Army’s United States Colored Troops. During the Civil War, the United States Colored Troops made up more than 10% of the Union Army, despite being prohibited from joining until July 1862, 15 months after the war began. (Source: African American Civil War Memorial Museum)
Juneteenth Resources
QPL Celebrates Juneteenth 2026 (Virtual Brochure from QPL, Langston Hughes Library, and Queens Memory)
Juneteenth: The Legacy of Black Greek Organizations (QPL/YouTube, 2022)
Juneteenth - All About the Holidays (PBS Kids/YouTube)
Juneteenth Storytime: 'Opal Lee And What It Means To Be Free' (Alice Faye Duncan Books/YouTube)
How 97-Year-Old Activist Opal Lee Became the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” (Biography.com)
The history behind the Juneteenth flag (WCNC Charlotte/YouTube)
Juneteenth Digital Toolkit (National Museum of African American History and Culture)
What Is Juneteenth? (HISTORY)
Celebrating Juneteenth, the Day Slavery Ended (The New York Times)
What is Juneteenth? (CBS News)
Juneteenth: The History of a Holiday (The New York Times)
The History Of Juneteenth (NPR Fresh Air)
Galveston, Texas, is the birthplace of the Juneteenth holiday (NPR)
United States Colored Troops History (African American Civil War Memorial Museum)
Fighting for Their Freedom: Historian Steward Henderson Talks about the United States Colored Troops (Emerging Civil War/YouTube)
How Black families, torn apart during slavery, worked to find one another again (NBC News)
Literary Thursdays: Robert Jones, Jr., Author of The Prophets (QPL/YouTube, 2025)
15 Juneteenth Movies That Gave Me Deeper Appreciation of Black History & Culture (PureWow)
17 Documentaries, Movies and Specials To Watch For Juneteenth (Essence Magazine)
Songs For Freedom: A Juneteenth Playlist From Pianist Lara Downes (NPR)
24 Recipes to Celebrate Juneteenth (Food & Wine)
DIY Confetti Poppers for Juneteenth (Crafting a Fun Life)
4 Meaningful Ways to Celebrate Juneteenth with Your Kids 2022 (Indy's Child Magazine)
Great Ideas for Celebrating Juneteenth (HGTV)
Recognizing This Significant Day in History—Here Are 60 Quotes To Better Understand Juneteenth (Parade Magazine)
How to Celebrate Juneteenth This Year (PureWow)
25 Ideas to Help You Celebrate Juneteenth (The Cubicle Chick by Danyelle Little)
8 Ways to Teach Your Kids About the Importance of Juneteenth (PopSugar Family)