First off, what is Juneteenth? Before we talk about celebrating it, it would help to know exactly what this holiday is all about. (Although the day has a long, deep history, it was only made a federal holiday by President Joe Biden in 2021. Some folks may not be aware of what Juneteenth commemorates.)

Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people via an order issued by Union Major General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, which proclaimed freedom for enslaved people in the state of Texas.

In an opinion piece for Bloomberg last year, Ohio State University professor Dr. Trevon Logan wrote that on the federal Juneteenth holiday, there’s some reflection he believes Americans should do.

“Americans must also recognize that the nation’s movement toward racial equity has been far from smooth or consistent, and that it is yet again under threat,” he wrote. “Time and again, progress has elicited intense backlash that has left Black people even farther behind.”

In an interview with National Public Radio, “The Black Agenda” author Anna Gifty Opuku-Agyeman said that she believes “there needs to be an actual grappling with how racial injustice is still shaping the lives of Black Americans and Black folks in America by extension, today.”

Understanding that vast web of impacts takes some time. We’re not all history professors or scholars; it’s never a bad thing to read research and history on our own, especially books or articles written by or about a broad spectrum of people.

So, in honor of Juneteenth, here are some books to read, as recommended by the New York Public Library and the National Museum of African American History and Culture:

— “On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed

— “A Black Woman’s History of the United States” by Daina Berry and Kali Gross

— “Four Hundred Souls,” a collection of stories edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha Blain

— “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson

— “More Beautiful and More Terrible” by Imani Perry.

All of these books, with the exception of the last, are available through the Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System.

There are also a variety of Juneteenth activities this weekend.

A “Colors of Freedom” driving tour by the North Star Underground Railroad Museum will feature seven different stops with reenactors, music, food and celebrations of the freedom spirit in Clinton and Essex counties.

On Saturday, the Colors of Freedom tour will start at 9 a.m. at the Strand Theater in Plattsburgh. People will visit the Keeseville Baptist Cemetery, Quaker Union and Stephen Keese Smith’s farm. Attendees will travel to Elizabethtown Courthouse to hear John Brown’s last speech to the court at 1 p.m. The tour costs $10 per person or $20 for a family pass. Pre-registration is required.

On Sunday, John Brown Farm in Lake Placid will host a celebration of freedom with music and a Black Lives Matter display.

On Monday, there will be a screening of the documentary “Songs of Slavery and Emancipation” and a question-and-answer session with filmmaker, musician and author Mat Callahan at Lake Flower Landing, 421 Lake Flower Ave., Saranac Lake. The cost is $5 per person.

Happy Juneteenth.