After years of research and eight months of writing, Dr. Charles Taylor has published his new book, “Juneteenth: The Promise of Freedom.” As a longtime educator and award-winning documentarian, Taylor says that he has dedicated his life’s work to “uncovering and honoring the rich tapestry of Black history — its brilliance, resilience, and enduring struggle for justice.”
“Juneteenth: The Promise of Freedom” takes readers on a journey through Black history, beginning not with slavery, but with Africa’s golden age. Throughout the book, Taylor challenges traditional narratives by revealing how Africa’s great civilizations were systematically destroyed, leading to the transatlantic slave trade.
Taylor, a retired professor from the doctoral program at Edgewood College where he also served as the Dean of the Business School, is also the producer of award-winning documentaries like “Decade of Discontent” and “Leaders of Madison’s Black Renaissance.”
In 2002, Taylor wrote “Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom,” which conveys the jubilation that occurred on June 19, 1865 when African American people in Texas were the last to be freed from the horrors of U.S. slavery.
“I gave a talk for a foundation in 2021 and I told people at that time that I was going to revise my earlier version [of the book]. But you know how life gets in the way … I did a couple of documentaries and films … but all along I was still doing the research,” Taylor remembers. “I gave the keynote speech last year for the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation in Washington, DC, and they had Juneteenth chapters from all across the country in attendance, and people were asking me: ‘When are you going to update your first Juneteenth book?’ And so I pledged then and there that I would do it. Eight months later, it’s finally done.”
Taylor says his latest book has incorporated about three or four years of research.
“This new book is a complete revision [of the first book]. When I really got into it, I kept wanting to make sure that people were understanding this holiday contextually, so I kept adding background information,” says Taylor, who was the recipient of the prestigious 2023 City-County Humanitarian Award honoring Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. “But then it dawned on me that Juneteenth is actually Black history, and we should never start it with slavery, because that would discount all of the Black history that has occurred in Africa before enslavement. And so I decided to start the book in Africa so people have a clear understanding of why Juneteenth is so important and why we’re in the position that we’re in today, not only as Black people, but as American society. Why is there so much division? Why is there still anti-Black racism after all this time? This book answers most of those questions.”
“Juneteenth: The Promise of Freedom” traces the complex path from ancient Africa to June 19, 1865, when Union Major General Gordon Granger announced the end of slavery in Galveston, Texas – more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
“This book talks about the great empires and kingdoms of Africa, and when outside invaders came and destroyed the African civilizations,” Taylor says. “It talks about the Trans-Atlantic slave era. And so it does a comprehensive Black history, African and African American history. It fills in some of the missing pages that people have.”
Taylor connects historical events to contemporary challenges in the 22 chapters of the book, demonstrating why Juneteenth remains relevant today. This expanded edition builds on Dr. Taylor’s original work, which became instrumental in the campaign to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
Taylor says that the book is intended for people 16 years and older.
“I’m hoping some high schools will find it useful in their history programs, even as a supplementary text. But as you know, books like this are being banned in Texas and Florida, and I think there are 14 states that have laws that are banning books,” Taylor says. “But this is the kind of history that we really need to know. We really need to have something that explains all of the divisions and all the disparities. And that’s that was part of why I wrote this book, so that people would really understand from the very beginning what happened to African Americans during their sojourn in this country and all of the different times that this country had a chance to choose between white supremacy and a multiracial democracy … and at every turning point, of course, they chose white supremacy.”
Taylor adds that even though enslavement ended 160 years ago, “the effects still linger because we never addressed the problems, and we never addressed the white supremacy that underpinned all the oppression.”
“This book points out those disparities that exist and points out those opportunities that the country had to at least make things better,” Taylor says. “At the end of the Civil War, there was no civil rights or human rights commission to give the country a chance to reflect on slavery, to talk about what’s needed for Black people to be integrated into the society. So we went from enslavement to Jim Crow, even though Reconstruction was a good shining light for 12 years, the Confederates never supported Reconstruction, and so they fought tooth and nail till the compromise of 1877 when the southern troops were withdrawn from the south.”
All of that, Taylor adds, is history we all need to know. “We need to know why [former President] Andrew Johnson was so opposed to Black voting rights, Black civil rights, any kind of rights for Blacks, and the damage that he did,” he says. “We need to know about the indentured servant system. When the first Africans came in 1619, they were not chattel slavery, because chattel slavery did not exist in English law. But what happened? How did they go from indentured servants to chattel slavery? That’s also explained in the book.
“There was a time when class differences were more significant than racial differences in about the first 50 years during the colonies,” he adds. “I try to give people a history that they may not be familiar with, but by understanding that history, they’ll get a better understanding of why Blacks are in the condition that we find ourselves in.”
This book serves as both a celebration of resilience and a call to action, showing how the promise of freedom remains an ongoing journey for many Americans.
“The resilience comes from enduring the experience that they had in America, but never giving up on the hope of being free,” Taylor says. “I dedicate a whole chapter to the first Juneteenth when the people first found out that they had been freed.”
The book is an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand the full scope of American history, Taylor says, and the continuing journey toward true equality and justice.
“The book asks some very important questions, and it shows people how in this country we could have taken a different path, perhaps, if we had addressed some of those problems years ago, but we did not,” Taylor says. “Now we have an administration that wants to take us backwards. We can really learn from the lessons that are in this book, almost in every chapter. I think that if we apply some of those lessons to today, we may be able to defeat some of the fascism that we are experiencing.”
“Juneteenth: The Promise of Freedom” is available in soft cover, hard cover, and e-book. “People can get it at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. They can order it directly from the publisher,” Taylor says. “Part of every sale is going to support the National Juneteenth Museum that is opening in Fort Worth, Texas, next year.”
