This year, for the first time, the Library will officially observe the Juneteenth holiday — Wednesday, June 19th — with its closure.
Juneteenth commemorates the day that the last of enslaved people in the United States were informed of their right to be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. It wasn’t until U.S. General Gordon Grainger, accompanied by 2,000 Union troops, arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, and issued General Order #3 on June 19, 1865 that:
“The people are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, become that between employer and hired labor.”
Though Juneteenth has been celebrated in the ensuing years, it became a federal holiday in 2021.
Learn about “The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth” at the National Museum of African American History & Culture: https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/historical-legacy-juneteenth, and check out our list of available books and e-books here, and on our display table in the Library under the portrait of Albert and Alfred Smiley.
The month of May, a time when we strive to bring awareness to our mental health, furthers the theme of the connection between friendship and health. At one time or another, most of us are in need of some kind of special care with life’s challenges and illnesses. Whether we are suffering from the effects of (in no particular order) grief, a broken heart, stress, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, addiction, autism, ADHD, OCD, schizophrenia, etc., we need, at the very least, some kind of guidance and kindness to get us through. Though we need to be aware that professional help may be required, the concern of a friend or a friendly stranger, or just a sincere smile on a face can often make all the difference.
Visit us, your friends at Smiley Public Library, if you need to locate resources for help, including finding some helpful books in the area of concern, even it’s just to hear another’s story. Here is a small sampling from our new book collection.
On a lighter note, another memoir, “
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Ultimately, in whatever we’re going through, we usually have to get to know ourselves better in order to begin healing. You may remember Julia Cameron’s 1992 classic “The Artist’s Way,” designed to provide tools to access artistic creative recovery. This year Cameron has released a supplement, “
Celebrate Earth Day in Redlands, Saturday, April 20th
Two more days… Not just the Daylight Savings time change (spring forward!), but the 96th annual Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood takes place this Sunday. Did your invitation get lost in the mail? Yeah, mine too. That’s O.K.—the ceremony will be televised (earlier than usual) at 4 p.m., on ABC.
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History, founded in 1915, assigns a theme each February for the observance of Black History Month. In 2024 the theme on which the Association is focusing is
Also, don’t forget our 
Juneteenth, on June 19 
