Town Hall

Juneteenth: Tracing the Origins and Significance

June 20, 2022

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As part of the National Constitution Center's two-day celebration commemorating Juneteenth, join a conversation with William B. Allen of Michigan State University and Hasan Kwame Jeffries of The Ohio State University exploring the history and meaning of the holiday, its connection to July 4 and the Declaration of Independence, and more. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.


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William B. Allen is a resident scholar and the former chief operating officer of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. He is emeritus professor of political philosophy in the department of political science and emeritus dean of  James Madison College at Michigan State University. Allen formerly served on the U.S. National Council on the Humanities and as the chairman and member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He is the author of several books, the most recent of which is The State of Black America: Progress, Pitfalls, and the Promise of the Republic

Hasan Kwame Jeffries is associate professor of history at The Ohio State University where he teaches courses on the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement. He is the author of Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt. He hosts the podcast Teaching Hard History, a production of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s educational division, Teaching Tolerance. He has also contributed to several documentary film projects, including the Emmy nominated PBS documentary Black America Since MLK.

Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.

 

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TRANSCRIPT

This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.

 

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