Hutchins Library News Blog

Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States. June 19th, 1865 was the day federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce emancipation. Though the federal holiday started in 2021, many communities have been celebrating it and continue to do so. 

Here are a few books from our collections you can read. Title links lead to the catalog record so you can locate the book.  

• Ralph Ellison's novel, Juneteenth, may be of interest. If you've read his Invisible Man, you may want to try this next.

• On Juneteenth by Anette Gordon-Reed. 

• How the word is passed : a reckoning with the history of slavery across America by Clint Smith. 

• Go back and get it : a memoir of race, inheritance, and intergenerational healing by Dionne Ford. 

Want to find some scholarly articles or other periodicals? Try one of our databases which you can access from our website. Please note: if you are off campus, you will need to authenticate access with your Berea College credentials and DUO. If you would like assistance using our databases or any other of our resources, you can visit or contact us at the Reference Desk. Our contact information is on our website where you can also chat virtually with the Reference Desk and set up an appointment with a librarian for in-depth research. 

• Academic Search Complete

• America: History and Life.

• J-Stor. 

• Ethnic Newswatch.

Here are some free online resources that may also be of interest: 

• The Wikipedia entry for Juneteenth. It provides a history overview and list of references. 

• Congressional Fact Sheet for Juneteenth, from the Congressional Research Service. You will find a link to the PDF document at the site. 

• An article from the Library of Congress. 

• A digital toolkit with various resources for Juneteenth from the National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian. This is where I found the graphic for Juneteenth. 

• Some resources from PBS to learn about Juneteenth.

Finally, from now to the end of the month, we have a small library display of books with a slideshow that you can come view during library regular hours. 

May 22 is Harvey Milk Day, a day to honor the life and legacy of the first openly gay politician in California and civil rights leader and activist. Sadly, he was assassinated by a political rival in 1978, but his legacy and contributions live on. 

If you would like to learn more, here are some library resources that may be of interest: 

• An Archive of Hope: Harvey Milk's Speeches and Writings (e-book). 
• Harvey Milk: his lives and death by Lillian Faderman (biography, e-book). 
• The Right Side of History: 100 Years of LGBTQI Activism (essay collection, print edition). See the essay “The Mayor of Castro Street.” You can find the book in the General Collection Stacks (2nd floor) by call number 323.326 B873r 2015. 
• Milk (2009, film). This is the biopic of his life with Sean Penn portraying Harvey Milk. You can find it in our DVD Collection in the main floor under call number DVD 791.437 M644 2009. 
• The Times of Harvey Milk (2004, Documentary). You can find it in the DVD Collection under call number DVD 364.152 T583 2004 Discs 1-2.

If you want to find and read articles on Harvey Milk, LGBTQ+ topics, and other civil rights issues, the following databases may be of interest. You can find our databases on our library website via the “Databases A-Z” link: 

• Academic Search Complete
• Alt Press Watch
• J-Stor 
• Project Muse

Resources from the open web: 

• Harvey Milk on Wikipedia. 
• Harvey Milk Day on Wikipedia.
• The Harvey Milk Foundation. 
• The Mayor of Castro Street. This is the 1982 biography written by Randy Shilts. I was a bit surprised our library does not have it at the moment, however, you can borrow it online via the Internet Archive. 

Notes: Please note that to access our library's electronic resources off campus, you will need campus authentication (your Berea College username, password, and DUO authentication). You can also access our electronic resources if you visit the library in person. 

If you need research assistance, you can always stop by the reference desk, use the chat widget on the library website, or make an appointment with one of the librarians from the library website. 

To borrow books on Internet Archive, you will need an account with Internet Archive. If you do not have one, you can set up a free account with Internet Archive. I have one, and I do use it. Just click on their “Sign Up/Log In” link to get started.