Friday, June 19, 2020

art in action -- Google Doodle for Juneteenth 155th anniversary, plus Juneteenth links

The June 19, 2020 Google Doodle was planned long ago, but arrived at just the right time.

This doodle celebrates the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth.


The official Google Doodle page has tons of background on this doodle. There's a long article by the Doodle's project creative director, Angelica McKinley. Here's a link for the Google Doodle page:
https://www.google.com/doodles/155th-anniversary-of-juneteenth

There is also an interview with Lovis Wise, the LA based illustrator for the Doodle, and the Doodle's music producer Elijah Jamal.

The page also lists the complete Juneteenth Doodle Creative Team.



Juneteenth 2020 was an important educational opportunity. Many Americans weren't familiar with this celebration and its long history. Here are just a few of the articles and links that appeared.

TED Ed -- What is Juneteenth and Why is it important?

HARPER-COLLINS PUBLISHING
18 kids books to honor Juneteenth and Black History

Childrens books are an important way for generations to share learning together. Books on science, the arts, and history are full of fantastic art and images that make challenging subjects more accessible.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The Birth of Juneteenth
On Saturday, June 19, 1865, in Limestone County, Texas, plantation owner Logan Stroud stood on the front porch of this house to tell more than 150 of his enslaved workers that they were free. Photo: Historic American Building Survey. Prints and Photographs Division.

WASHINGTON POST

White People Learn about Juneteenth
Excerpt: 
When the School Library Journal did a quick poll this week, it found that 90 percent of the educators who responded don’t include Juneteenth in their teaching.
I didn’t learn about it until I was 25, working as a reporter in New Orleans and I was interviewing a black woman who told me about a fond memory she had preparing for a Juneteenth celebration with her husband. If white people didn’t learn about it from a black studies class in college or from a friend, they saw it pop up on their iPhone calendars or caught it on TV — an episode of “Watchmen” or “Blackish.”
See it now?
It’s one of the foundations for the division and ignorance tearing at America today — the white history curriculum masquerading as American history — no matter how well-meaning, woke or supportive we think we are.
Strawberry soda and red velvet cake are part of the holiday, symbolizing the blood spilled in slavery. Historians also connect red to the power and spirituality the color holds in some West African cultures.
All those green cookies on St. Patrick’s Day and construction paper Santa Marias on Columbus Day, but did any schools cover the deep scars of slavery on our nation and how black Americans today reckon with it?“

Will this Juneteenth finally fulfill promises?
Excerpt:
On June 19, 1865, Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston to inform enslaved people in Texas that they had been freed. Although 2½ years had passed since the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln, it had not been enforced in the far reaches of the Confederacy.
The chains broken on Juneteenth, as the date came to be known, marked the end of legal slavery in Texas. But it also birthed the monstrous legacy of justice delayed for black Americans, as promises of freedom, equality and citizenship remain unrealized 155 years later. Each year, as Juneteenth is celebrated around the country with barbecues, parades and speeches, there are also reflections on how elusive justice for African Americans still is after all these years.
Will this Juneteenth finally be different?


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