UpFront

How Juneteenth became a national holiday; Plus, a conversation with Dr Jonathan Daniel Wells

Today’s special focuses on Juneteenth, as we head into the holiday weekend | pixabay

0:08 – As we head into the weekend of Juneteenth, we spend our first segment with Dr. Gregory Carr (@AfricanaCarr), Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University who joins us to chart the path of making Juneteenth a federal holiday. We start in Washington, where Carr meets figures like Opal Lee, who in 2016 famously walked 1,400 miles from Fort Worth, Texas to Washinton, DC to gain Congressional support for Juneteenth.

0:34 – We speak with Dr Jonathan Daniel Wells (@JonDWells), Professor of History in the Departments of Afroamerican and African Studies and History, and Director of the Residential College, at the University of Michigan, about his latest book is The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War