Celebrating Juneteenth!

Pictured above: The Juneteenth Flag, designed by L.J. Graf, et al.

On June 17, 2021, President Biden signed into law a bill establishing Juneteenth National Independence Day, a celebration designating the end of slavery in the United States, as a federal holiday. President Biden said at the signing, “By making Juneteenth a federal holiday, all Americans can feel the power of this day and learn from our history, and celebrate progress, and grapple with the distance we’ve come but the distance we have to travel to.” The last federal holiday was created in 1983 when Ronald Reagan established Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Juneteenth, also called Jubilee Day, Black Independence Day, and Emancipation Day, has been celebrated in the United States since its origination in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865. Read more about the origins of Juneteenth.

The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture began hosting Juneteenth exhibits and virtual events on June 17 and will continue throughout the week. MCMS encourages members to visit NMAAHC for the celebration and to view its selection of historical objects in the museum’s collection related to the many contributions of African Americans to medicine. These include the diaries of Ionia Rollin Whipper, M.D., a digital heart rhythm monitor prototype invented by pioneering cardiologist L. Julian Haywood, M.D., and a tintype believed to be of Dr. Sarah Loguen Fraser (1850-1933) carrying her medical bag. An 1876 graduate of Syracuse University College of Medicine, Dr. Fraser became the fourth African American female doctor in the United States.