There are Seven Principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba, that help us to continue building and maintaining unified and empowered communities.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
In July of 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech titled “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?,” a call for the promise of liberty be applied equally to all Americans. Douglass’s speech emphasized that American slavery and American freedom is a shared history and that the actions of ordinary men and women, demanding freedom, transformed our nation.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
Observe Juneteenth by reading. Here is a peek at books the staff of the National Museum of African American History and Culture are reading, have read, or have on their to-read list.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of Texas Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1870, Letters Received, Unregistered Letters Received| nmaahc.si.edu
Museum scholars explore the origins of Juneteenth, the meaning of freedom and African American cultural traditions.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
In this curatorial discussion, museum scholars examine the historical significance of the holiday and how it came to be.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
As waves of emancipation swept through the country, many African Americans sought to reunite with lost family members and to define family roles and responsibilities in ways they believed best suited their new circumstances. Their efforts highlighted the importance of family as foundational to their status as free people.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
For the nearly four million newly freed, education was a crucial first step to becoming self-sufficient. Between 1861 and 1900, more than 90 institutions of higher education were founded for African Americans.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture celebrates Black Music Month.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
The Smithsonian Transcription Center is a pan-Smithsonian website that allows digital volunteers, or “volunpeers,” from around the world to transcribe documents, photograph captions, field books, and other materials online.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
The Freedmen’s Bureau Search Portal provides unprecedented opportunities for family historians and genealogists to search for their ancestors and for scholars to research a variety of topics related to slavery and Reconstruction in the Freedmen’s Bureau records.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
Juneteenth Community Day| National Museum of African American History and Culture
Plan Your Visit| nmaahc.si.edu
Browse and search all NMAAHC stories.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
Juneteenth is a time to gather as a family, reflect on the past and look to the future. Discover ways to celebrate this African American cultural tradition of music, food and freedom.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
The "Little Rock Nine," as the nine teens came to be known, were to be the first African American students to enter Little Rock's Central High School. Three years earlier, following the Supreme Court ruling, the Little Rock school board pledged to voluntarily desegregate its schools. This idea was explosive for the community and, like much of the South, it was fraught with anger and bitterness.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
To understand where we are and where we are going, we must first understand the forces that brought us here.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
Culture shapes lives. It’s in the food people eat, the languages they speak, the art they create, and many other ways they express themselves. These traditions reflect the history and creative spirit of African American and other cultures of the African diaspora.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
On September 15, 1963, an explosion shattered the quiet of a Sunday morning, blowing apart the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four young girls who were getting ready for Sunday School were killed almost instantly. Denise McNair, 11, Addie Mae Collins, 14, Carole Robertson, 14, and Cynthia Wesley, 14 died as a result of a bomb placed under the church by members of the Ku Klux Klan.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
Black students, whether studying at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) or predominantly white institutions, came together to create these organizations, forging familial ties to one another and outreach within the larger Black community.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
The case of the Scottsboro Boys lasted more than 80 years and helped spur the Civil Rights Movement.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
Learn more about the offerings from Sweet Home Café.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
Juneteenth is an often overlooked event in our nation’s history. On June 19, 1865, Union troops freed enslaved African Americans in Galveston Bay and across Texas some two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.| National Museum of African American History and Culture
