S2E6: Juneteenth and the History of Black Emancipation Days in the U.S, Dr. Melissa Stuckey

In this episode of the Cite Black Women podcast, Dr. Christen Smith sits down with Dr. Melissa Stuckey to discuss the history of Black emancipation days in the United States, Juneteenth, and the special tone this year's commemoration takes in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Dr. Stuckey discuss the special connections between George Floyd and Juneteenth in Emancipation Park in Houston, the tradition of Emancipation Days across the country, and why the history of our freedom celebrations has everything to do with our current moment. Dr. Melissa N. Stuckey is assistant professor of African American history at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) in North Carolina. She is a specialist in early twentieth century black activism and is committed to engaging the public in important conversations about black freedom struggles in the United States. Dr. Stuckey is the author of several book chapters, journal, and magazine articles including “Boley, Indian Territory: Exercising Freedom in the All Black Town,” published in 2017 in the Journal of African American History and "Freedom on Her Own Terms: California M. Taylor and Black Womanhood in Boley, Oklahoma" (forthcoming in This Land is Herland: Gendered Activism in Oklahoma, 1870s to 2010s, edited by Sarah Eppler Janda and Patricia Loughlin, University of Oklahoma Press, 2020). Stuckey is currently completing her first book, entitled “All Men Up”: Seeking Freedom in the All-Black Town of Boley, Oklahoma, which interrogates the black freedom struggle in Oklahoma as it took shape in the state’s largest all-black town. Stuckey is also working on several public history projects. She has been awarded grants from the National Parks Service and the Institute for Museum and Library Services to rehabilitate a historic Rosenwald school on ECSU's campus and to preserve the history and legacy of these important African American institutions. In addition, she is a contributing historian on the NEH-funded “Free and Equal Project” in Beaufort, South Carolina, which is interpreting the story of Reconstruction for national and international audiences and is senior historical consultant to the Coltrane Group, a non-profit organization in Oklahoma committed to economic development and historic rehabilitation in the thirteen remaining historically black towns in that state. Melissa Stuckey earned her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and her Ph.D. from Yale University