Today we celebrate Juneteenth. For some, this is a holiday that you’ve only recently heard of or discovered. For others, the celebrations are as engrained in your family traditions as Memorial Day or New Year’s Day. Either way, the Delaware County District Library is happy to celebrate with you or help you in your discovery.

All Library locations are closed today in recognition of the holiday, but we have online resources at www.delawarelibrary.org and we’ll be back open tomorrow to help you find anything you need.

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce the freedom of the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in Texas — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln had originally issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

As Juneteenth is an occasion not just for celebration, but also for reflection and education, we recognize and honor the profound contributions of Black people to American history and culture. This past weekend, DCDL had the joy and honor of participating in the Unity Community Center and Delaware African American Heritage Council’s Juneteenth Celebration at the Blue Limestone Park in Delaware.

There was music, dancing, hair care demonstrations, and delicious food!

At the Library booth, we passed out bookmarks with reading recommendations to learn more about Juneteenth and had a coloring activity for kids to color in quilt blocks as part of our Freedom Quilt.

When people escaped their enslavers and headed north, it was hard to know where to look for help.

According to legend, one could find a safe house by looking for a quilt hanging from a clothesline or windowsill. Each design, or “block,” on a quilt had a secret meaning that would help a person know how to proceed or what dangers to expect on the dangerous path to freedom. Though we can’t be sure if quilt codes are completely fact or folklore, quilting continues to be an important part of African-American tradition and art.

If you’re looking for more ways to celebrate Juneteenth with your family, tonight the Strand Theatre will have a 7 p.m. screening of “Camp Delaware,” which showcases the history of Delaware’s training camp for Black soldiers during the Civil War and features original music inspired by letters written by soldiers in the camp at the time. Then on Saturday, June 29 at 10 a.m. the Delaware African American Heritage Council will present a Black History Cemetery Tour of the Oak Grove Cemetery in partnership with Delaware Parks and Rec.

If you’re interested in learning more about our nation’s newest federally recognized holiday, check out one of these titles:

• “On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed. Provides a historian’s view of the nation’s long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond.

• “Juneteenth: The Story Behind the Celebration” by Edward T. Cotham. Using decades of research in archives around the nation, this book helps separate myth from reality and tells the story behind the celebration in a way that provides new understanding and appreciation for the event.

• “Opal Lee and What it Means to Be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth” by Alice Faye Duncan. Growing up in Texas, Opal knew the history of Juneteenth, but she soon discovered that most Americans had never heard of the holiday that represents the nation’s creed of “freedom for all.” This picture book tells the true story of Black activist Opal Lee and her vision of Juneteenth as a holiday for everyone.

• “Free at Last: A Juneteenth Poem” by Sojourner Kincaid Rolle. Poet and activist Sojourner Kincaid Rolle traces the solemnity and celebration of Juneteenth from its 1865 origins in Galveston, Texas to contemporary observances all over the United States in this children’s ode to the strength of Black Americans with a call to remember and honor a holiday whose importance reverberates far beyond.

If you have a question that you would like to see answered in this column, mail it to Nicole Fowles, Delaware County District Library, 84 E. Winter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call us at 740-362-3861. You can also email your questions by visiting the library’s web site at www.delawarelibrary.org or directly to Nicole at [email protected]. No matter how you contact us, we’re always glad you asked!