Gordon-Reed spoke about the political violence Black people faced when trying to vote following the end of Reconstruction. While doing research online, Gordon-Reed found the name of her great-great grandfather on a voter registration list from 1867, during Reconstruction. They are not being taught about the roles slavery and racism played in shaping Texas. 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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