Google published quite the doodle for Juneteenth 2023.
The popular search giant recently launched a unique doodle created by guest artist Laura Freeman to celebrate this year's Juneteenth with the US' African American community and the American people at large.
Freeman is an award-winning illustrator from New York; she has illustrated many books, but she's best known for her work in children's books, per her official website.
Laura Freeman Doodle Details
Google has been celebrating various significant international events, and Juneteenth is one of those. To commemorate it, Google asked Freeman to create artwork inspired by the event, which depicts "a multi-generational community celebration of the holiday with symbols of freedom including a dove, Juneteenth flag, and Kente cloth patterns."
According to the award-winning artist's statement, she focused on Celebration and Freedom as the central themes for her creation, with the former taking more focus than the latter. She also thought featuring only one woman's profile on the right side, but the people at Google suggested she add more profiles showing people of different ages and genders - a good call, in her opinion.
Interestingly, the artwork Google used for its Juneteenth doodle wasn't Freeman's first creation for the assignment - she made and went through two artworks before settling on the third after much consideration, which became Google's doodle for the event.
Her initial artwork used a pattern made up of the Adinkra symbol for freedom/independence; the colors of the Kente cloth inspired the palette for the rest of the doodle, though she didn't clarify if she used the Kente cloth's color palette for all her artwork or her third and final one.
Nevertheless, Freeman felt honored that GOogle asked her to do the Juneteenth doodle.
The History of Juneteenth
June 19, commonly known as Juneteenth, is a day of great significance for the African American community. It was on this day in 1865 that enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, received news of their libration through the Emancipation Proclamation President Abraham Lincoln issued in 1863.
At the time, Texas and other Confederate States opposed the proclamation, but the Union army under Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger marched into Galveston and issued the now-infamous "General Orders, Number 3," which informed 250,000 African American Texans of their freedom, per CBS News.
As a result, African Americans acknowledge Juneteenth with events and gatherings honoring the struggles of those who came before and the ongoing efforts to create a more equitable fair country. NBC News mentioned that the US government acknowledged the event and designated June 19 as a federal holiday in 2021.
To celebrate the event, people congregate at carnivalesque festivals with food trucks, arts and crafts, and parades, while some go to concerts and fashion shows highlighting Black excellence and creativity. Those who want to look back are welcome to events hosted by various organizations and universities to remind people of how Juneteenth came to be.
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