Tonya Duncan Ellis is the author of the Sophie Washington chapter book series. An inaugural member of the Brown Bookshelf and the Amplify Black Stories storyteller cohort, Tonya has spoken and taught at writing conferences at the Highlights Foundation and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Winter Conference in New York City. She lives in Houston, Texas. Her new picture book, They Built Me for Freedom: The Story of Juneteenth and Houston’s Emancipation Park, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal.
Book Festival Author
Tonya Duncan Ellis
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They Built Me for Freedom: The Story of Juneteenth and Houston's Emancipation Park
On June 19, 1865, the 250,000 enslaved people of Texas learned they were free, ending slavery in the United States. This day was soon to be memorialized with the dedication of a park in Houston. The park was called Emancipation Park, and the day it honored would come to be known as Juneteenth.
In the voice and memory of the park itself—its fields and pools, its protests and cookouts, and, most of all, its people—the 150-year story of Emancipation Park is brought to life. Through lyrical text and vibrant artwork, Tonya Duncan Ellis and Jenin Mohammed have crafted an ode to the struggle, triumph, courage, and joy of Black America—and the promise of a people to remember.
