Educator Voice: Author Alice Faye Duncan discusses history of Juneteenth

This piece was originally published in June 2023 and updated Feb. 2025.

 

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Overview

Alice Faye Duncan, a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT), writes books for young learners. Her book, ‘Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free,’ is a true story about Black activist Opal Lee and the history of Juneteenth.

Duncan sat down in the spring of 2023 with Fariya Farah, News Hour Classroom intern, to discuss her book and the significance of Juneteenth as a national holiday.

Warm-up questions

1. What is Juneteenth?
2. When did Juneteenth become a federal holiday?
3. Read the quote by Alice Faye Duncan: “You can activate your agency. It does not matter your race. It does not matter how much you have in terms of your wealth or your lack of it. You can activate your dreams. What is needed is a desire to do that.” What does it make you think about? What does she mean by the word agency? What dreams do you see yourself wanting to activate? Does anyone besides you play a role in your desire to do that?

Q&A

You can listen to the full, edited interview here.
The full transcript is available here.

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Discussion questions

1. Why is it significant that Juneteenth is now a federal holiday?
2. “I have to tell you that none of us are free until we are all free,” Opal Lee says. What do you think she mean by that?
3. How is freedom experienced differently by different people in the United States today?
4. Alice Faye Duncan says that “if we celebrate others and if we are intentional to connect with others, then compassion will grow, empathy will grow. And what else will grow? Liberation. The expansion of liberation and freedom will grow.” How is freedom connected to empathy?
5. Duncan says “liberation and democracy are what we are celebrating on Juneteenth. And therefore all Americans are and should be celebrating liberation and democracy.” Do you agree that everyone should celebrate Juneteenth? Why or why not?

About the author

Alice Faye Duncan is a National Board Certified Teacher who writes for young learners. Memory is her motivation. She writes to help children remember important moments from African American history. Her books are celebrated for vivid imagery and lyrical texts that sound like music. Alice’s most popular titles include A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks ; Just Like a Mama ; Honey Baby Sugar Child; and Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop, which received a 2019 Coretta Scott King Honor Medal. Alice lives in Memphis, Tennessee, where at a young age, her mother nurtured her writing talent with prayer, poetry books and praise. Her website is www.alicefayeduncan.com.

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