Flag for Juneteenth

On June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger of the Union Army arrived in Galveston and announced that African Americans in Texas were free. The day became known as Juneteenth, and it has gained steadily wider recognition across the United States since. In 2020, a wave of protests and demonstrations calling for racial justice and equality drew fresh attention to its significance.

A Flag for Juneteenth tells the story of that first celebration through the eyes of a young girl. It opens the day before the announcement, among a close-knit community of enslaved African Americans on a Texas plantation. Huldah is getting ready to turn ten, and she has no idea how much her life will change the next morning. The story follows her and her community as they take in the news of their freedom and then celebrate together by making a community freedom flag.

Kim Taylor, a debut author and artist, is an expert quilter, and she brings that skill to the pictures. Every illustration is hand sewn and quilted, which gives the book a homespun, tactile look.