The Freedom to Learn: Literacy as Liberation

On June 19, 1865, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally received news about a law that had been in effect for two and a half years: They were free. The date we now celebrate as Juneteenth marks both the end of legal bondage and the genesis of a question that now faced every newly freed person: What does freedom mean?

For many, freedom began with a single, radical act: learning to read. So while Juneteenth is the oldest national commemoration of the end of American slavery, it is also a celebration of the right to know; the right to access ideas, histories, and facts that had been strategically withheld to perpetuate oppression and violence.

To understand why this mattered so profoundly to generations of Black Americans, we must reckon honestly with what was done to prevent enslaved people from empowering themselves with literacy and therefore knowledge.

Throughout the antebellum period (between the War of 1812 and the American Civil War), teaching an enslaved person to read was illegal in Southern states, including Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The rationale was a simple and familiar one: Literacy is power. When a person can read, they can take in new information silently, on their own time, in secret if necessary.

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A Black person who could read and was able to access an abolitionist newspaper, for example, would be aware that there were people throughout the country who opposed the institution of slavery. They could forge freedom papers. They could organize, resist, and pursue a world that was entirely different than the one that held them in a single place for a single purpose. Despite the risk of brutal consequences, many enslaved people secretly strove for literacy. In this way, the very act of reading was a form of resistance.

It is no surprise, then, that once news of emancipation spread throughout the American South, one of the most immediate and profound responses was a collective surge toward education. Formerly enslaved men and women — many in their sixties and seventies — sat beside children in newly formed, segregated classrooms, determined to learn to read before they died.

This hunger for knowledge was both measurable and monumental. As the Civil War ended, roughly 10 percent of Black Americans in the South were literate. Less than forty years later, more than 55 percent of Black Americans could read.

As the National Museum of African American History and Culture tells us, the drive to learn was inseparable from the drive to be free; more than just a practical goal, this pursuit was an assertion of the humanity that had long been denied to Black Americans. Communities that had once been legally banned from learning began building schools, churches, and libraries at a remarkable pace. New knowledge was power — and that power led to prodigious growth and awe-inspiring legacies.

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The Library as Living Monument

Libraries today represent the philosophical opposite of knowledge suppression. In communities where laws once said that some people did not have permission to read, public libraries now exist on the principle that insists everyone may read.

While the practice of slavery intentionally withheld literacy—and therefore knowledge—as a means of control, public libraries disseminate information freely at no cost. A library card — available to anyone, regardless of income, background, age, ability, or education — is one of the most democratic resources that a person can hold.

In short, libraries rest on a tenet that was once considered dangerous: Everyone deserves access to knowledge.

And of course, libraries are themselves a way to document and preserve the stories of Black Americans throughout history, particularly in the time since enslaved people in Galveston learned of their freedom. EveryLibrary has explored the robust archives that preserve Juneteenth history by protecting documents, oral histories, photographs, and community records that tell the full story of Black American freedom.

These collections don’t just hold the past; they make it accessible to anyone who walks through the door.

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The Unfinished Fight: What You Can Do

In recent years, the United States has seen a surge in book challenges and bans, leading to the removal or restriction of books from school libraries and classrooms. Not surprisingly, research demonstrates that the disproportionate targets are content about Black history, race and racism, and by Black authors.

While today’s methods of suppression are different, the pattern is very familiar in a country that once made literacy a crime for people who were enslaved: Control what people can read, and you control what they can think, feel, and ultimately demand.

To honor Juneteenth, resist the pattern. Visit your local library and explore the works of Black authors across genres, eras, and topics. Ask your librarian for recommendations. Discover what your library’s archive holds about local Black history. Bring a young person with you and let them see that the library belongs to them.

And then take one more step: Sign EveryLibrary’s petition to fight book bans.

The freedom that Black Americans were guaranteed on June 19, 1865, is inseparable from the right to know — and it requires people who believe in it to stand up, generation after generation, sometimes even at great personal risk, because they know that reading is the pathway to everything else.

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