BPL, Birmingham African American Genealogy Group Hosting Juneteenth Talk on June 17 at Central Library

Want to learn more about the history of Juneteenth, a national holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. The Birmingham Public Library (BPL) and Birmingham African American Genealogy Group Inc. will host a talk by Dr. Howard Robinson of Alabama State University on Saturday, June 17 at 1:00 p.m. in the Central Library's Arrington Auditorium. The talk, "Juneteenth: America''s Second Independence Day," is a presentation of the Alabama Historical Association Speaker's Bureau. 

Dr. Robinson, a history professor at ASU, will explore the people, places, and events that mark the origins and development of Juneteenth. Celebrated by many in the Black culture as the "Independence Day" of African-Americans, Juneteenth became an official federal holiday on June 19, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. It was the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.   

Juneteenth began as a local coastal Texas celebration of freedom of Black slaves. The holiday's roots  began in Galveston, Texas. 

On June 19, 1865, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to take control of the state and ensure that all Black slaves were freed. That was two and a half years after January 1, 1863, when President Abe Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing Black slaves. 

 Originally from Queens, New York, Dr. Howard Overton Robinson, II spent his formative years in Roosevelt, New York and graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1981. While an undergraduate majoring in mass communications at Alabama State University, Dr. Robinson took a position with the Montgomery NBC affiliate, WSFA. In 1986, while still working at the TV station he completed a B.A. degree in communications. Dr. Robinson returned to ASU in 1990 to pursue a Master's of Arts degree in history. After completing the M.A. program in 1993, Robinson left Montgomery to attend the University of Akron where he pursued a Ph.D. in American History. 

From 1998 to 2004, Dr. Robinson served as an Assistant Professor of African American History at Armstrong Atlantic State in Savannah, Georgia. In 2004, Dr. Robinson returned to Alabama State University to serve as both the University Archivist at the Levi Watkins Learning Center and as an Assistant Professor of American History. Dr. Robinson also serves as the advisor to his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi.

By Jim Baggett, BPL Archives Dept. Head & Roy L. Williams, BPL PR Director