Dan Thorp, associate professor of history at Virginia Tech, is researching freedom suits in antebellum Virginia.
It has been three years since Juneteenth became a federal holiday.
Americans should see it as an occasion to celebrate the diverse fabric of the country – its people, says a Virginia Tech expert.
The June 19 holiday commemorates the day in 1865 when, two months after the Civil War, enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned that they were free.
Dan Thorp, an associate professor of history at Virginia Tech, says Americans should view the day as an important time of coming together.
“Juneteenth serves as a reminder of the fact that the United States was built by a wide range of people, many of whom were largely ignored for many years,” Thorp says.
“Juneteenth, as a federal holiday, represents a long-overdue acknowledgement of the huge contribution — albeit involuntary — that enslaved Africans and their descendants made to establishment and growth of the country.”
Thorp is an associate professor of history at Virginia Tech, whose research is focused on the history of African Americans in Southwest Virginia, the history of British colonies, and the European colonization and exploration of North America. He currently is researching freedom suits in antebellum Virginia, which were lawsuits initiated by enslaved people seeking freedom. Thorp has written books and authored journal articles about African Americans and the history of slavery in the commonwealth.
