Harvard's Annette Gordon-Reed "On Juneteenth"

It's been 13 years since Massachusetts' first Black governor, Deval Patrick, signed the first proclamation commemorating Juneteenth in Massachusetts. Now, the commonwealth will celebrate the day as an official state holiday this Saturday, also for the first time.

Juneteenth, at its most elemental level, is a celebration, marking the day in 1865 that slavery came to an end in Texas. Of course it is so much more than that, and we dive into that powerful history with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed. She's a professor at Harvard, the author of numerous books, including her latest: "On Juneteenth."