“It was quite an honor to be asked to speak at the National Juneteenth Observance,” Taylor said. “A lot of those people represented Juneteenth chapters from around the country that Doc had created. They all knew me. They were familiar with my book. And so almost to a person, they kept asking, ‘When are you going to update your book? When are you going to do this?’ And so I promised them publicly that I would update it within the next year. I had already done a lot of research. It was three years of research and eight months of writing. I did finish it and a lot of the chapters have bought the book. That’s where we stand right now.”

While the origin of Juneteenth is well-known, the date of June 19, 2025 when enslaved Africans in Galveston, Texas learned they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation and broke into a spontaneous street festival. But Taylor explores the deeper roots of the meaning of Juneteenth.

“I wrote Juneteenth: The Promise of Freedom to illuminate the full story of Black History and reclaim the narrative from its Eurocentric framing,” Taylor said. “My book begins not with the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, but with Africa’s great empires. From there, it traces centuries of survival. I want my readers to understand that Juneteenth is not just a holiday, but the culmination of a profound journey towards freedom. If we truly know where we come from, we can better envision where we need to go. My book was inspired by the need to fill in the missing pages of history, and honor the strength and agency of Black people before and after slavery and to ensure that each generation understands both the progress made and the work that remains.”

While Taylor wrote his book independently from the National Juneteenth Museum that is being built in Texas, he is collaborating with them.

“The Juneteenth museum in Texas didn’t provide any editorial or writing assistance,” Taylor noted. “But they did provide some financial assistance so that I could have the resources that I needed to complete the book. They and my friend Carmen provided the resources so that I could take the time and devote my attention to this book. For eight months, I did nothing but work night and day to finish the book. I had people constantly saying, ‘When is it going to be ready?’ Even though I started writing last July, I didn’t finish until May of this year. And so I kept changing things. I kept finding more research. I thought maybe it was tool harsh. I kept going back and forth, back and forth. But I was finally able to finish it in late May.”

And the book will continue to be a part of the museum.

“The Museum is going to house my first book in the museum in their permanent collection,” Taylor said. “And they will be selling my new book in their gift shop. That’s the long-term relationship that I have with them. The National Juneteenth Museum is in honor of Ms. Opal Lee, of course. She sits on the board. I’ve met with her board a couple of times. And they are still in a massive campaign. They are raising $70-90 million. They have already raised two-thirds of it. They are in a good position right now. With everything that Trump is doing, I don’t think they can expect any federal money. But so far, they’ve done real well in terms of fundraising.”

While the White Nationalists and other right-wing groups are trying to stamp out the African American experience out of educational books, Taylor gives the true impact of the horror.

“In every chapter, people are going to find information that they may or may not be familiar with, whether it is the trip over from Africa, the migration out of Africa, the role of the Black Church, the role of white allies, what slavery was really like, why after the Civil War, Blacks weren’t truly free. They will learn things — what I call The Missing Chapters — in almost every chapter of the book.”

Taylor talked about the period right after the Civil War. While Blacks were legally freed, they were still economically enslaved.

“Black people didn’t have the means to support themselves for a couple of reasons,” Taylor said. “Former President Andrew Johnson allowed the Confederates to go back into their old leadership roles, which was like letting the Nazis go back into their roles in Germany after World War II. It was so terrible, all of the lynchings and murders of Black people during that period that Johnson had to send an investigator by the name of General Shirks. He was a southern sympathizer, but he was shaken to his core with all the violence that he saw. He said he saw Black bodies stacked up in rows. The Black bodies looked like fruit on trees, there were so many hanging. He brought this report back and he said, ‘We need immediate federal intervention.’ And Johnson did just like what Lyndon Johnson did with the Kerner Commission Report. He ignored it. What happened was that the violence was so bad that it changed Northern attitudes. The so-called Radical Republicans who were given that name because they supported Black rights vetoed Johnson’s versions of Reconstruction and implemented their own. That’s when they created five military districts in the South. They sent federal troops to protect the rights of Blacks. And so for a 10-12 year period, a lot of Blacks were elected to political office. They created public schools and public health. And they created jobs for both Blacks and Whites.”