Students are taught that history goes from Reconstruction to Vietnam, Gordon-Reed said. “So it is easy to reproduce a system of social control that is as close to slavery as possible.” “That world is something still with us today,” Gordon-Reed said. “Cowboys and cattle ranchers are the figures that come to mind.” “Texas is in the Southwest, but the west part of it I think dominates the imagination,” Gordon-Reed said. Gordon-Reed hopes “On Juneteenth” helps people understand some things about the state. Over the years, Gordon-Reed said many people have asked her to explain the misunderstood history of Texas, a state entrenched in stereotypes. Gordon-Reed’s publisher has been pushing her for a while to write about Texas. “‘On Juneteenth’ is a departure from my usual writing about other people's lives, other people’s family secrets, and problems and triumphs and so forth, but never my own family’s.” “I was thinking about, and I missed them, and it occurred to me that I might be able to bring them back,” Gordon-Reed said. This led Gordon-Reed to write about her family for the first time. The global shutdown caused by COVID-19 gave Gordon-Reed more time to reflect on her family and childhood in Texas. In 2020, Gordon-Reed wrote an article for The New Yorker describing what Juneteenth meant for her and other Black Texans. Gordon-Reed’s most-famous publications include “Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy” and “Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History.”
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