Juneteenth, Health Equity, and Five Black Women Shaping the Future of Healthcare

History & Culture

Jun 19

Written By Comma

    
    Published June 19, 2026
  
    5 min read
  
    Written By Amanda Morin

— THE SHORT VERSION

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and reminds us that progress toward equity is ongoing.
Black women continue to face significant healthcare disparities, while also leading some of the most important advancements in health equity and reproductive justice.
Leaders like Byllye Avery, Loretta Ross, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire, Dr. Uché Blackstock, and Dr. Monica McLemore have transformed healthcare through advocacy, research, and innovation.
Their work has advanced maternal health, reproductive justice, public health, and equitable access to care.
Building a more equitable healthcare system requires recognizing both the challenges that remain and the people working to create change.

On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally learned they were free. The day, now celebrated as Juneteenth, marks both the end of slavery in the United States and the ongoing pursuit of freedom, opportunity, and equality.

Juneteenth is often viewed through a historical lens, but it is also a reminder that progress is not always immediate, equitable, or guaranteed. More than 150 years later, inequities continue to shape many aspects of American life, including healthcare.

Today, Black women continue to face disproportionate rates of maternal mortality, chronic disease, delayed diagnoses, and barriers to care. At the same time, Black women researchers, physicians, advocates, and healthcare leaders are driving some of the most important advancements in medicine, public health, and health equity.

This Juneteenth, we honor both the history of the holiday and the Black women whose work continues to transform healthcare for future generations.

Byllye Avery

In 1983, Byllye Avery organized the first National Conference on Black Women's Health Issues at Spelman College in Atlanta. She expected around 200 attendees. Nearly 2,000 women came from across the country, and the conversations that took place over those three days changed how many people understood the relationship between racism and health.

That conference led directly to the founding of what is now the Black Women's Health Imperative: the first nonprofit organization created by Black women exclusively dedicated to the health and wellness of Black women and girls. Avery spent decades ensuring that Black women's specific health experiences were named, studied, and taken seriously at a time when most of the medical establishment wasn't doing either.

Loretta Ross

In 1994, Loretta Ross was one of twelve Black women who developed the framework of reproductive justice — a term and a theory that expanded the conversation beyond abortion access to include the full conditions under which people make decisions about their bodies and families: healthcare, housing, safety, economic stability.

She went on to co-found SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective in 1997, which became one of the most significant reproductive health organizations in the country. In 2022, she received a MacArthur Fellowship, and in 2024 she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Her framework is now used by researchers, clinicians, and advocates worldwide to understand why reproductive health cannot be separated from the broader conditions of people's lives.

Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire

When COVID-19 emerged in early 2020, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire was leading the coronavirus vaccine team at the NIH. Her team co-designed mRNA-1273 (the Moderna vaccine) moving from viral sequence to clinical trial in 66 days. The vaccine demonstrated over 94% efficacy and is now administered around the world.

Beyond the science, Dr. Corbett-Helaire has been deliberate about addressing vaccine hesitancy in Black and underserved communities — communities with well-founded reasons to distrust medical institutions. She has described public outreach as inseparable from the research itself. She is now an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Uché Blackstock

Dr. Uché Blackstock trained at Harvard Medical School, where she and her twin sister became the first Black mother-daughter legacies in the school's history, before going on to practice emergency medicine and teach at NYU School of Medicine.

In 2024, she published Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, a New York Times bestseller that documents the systemic inequities shaping healthcare outcomes for Black patients and physicians alike. She is also the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, an organization that partners with healthcare institutions to move equity from principle to practice. Her work has helped reframe health disparities not as an unfortunate reality, but as a solvable problem with identifiable causes.

Dr. Monica McLemore

Dr. Monica McLemore spent 28 years as a clinical nurse before stepping back from practice to dedicate herself fully to research — specifically, to understanding why Black women in America face such disproportionate risks during pregnancy and childbirth. Her work sits at the intersection of reproductive health, racial justice, and policy, and it has made a concrete mark: her research has been cited in eight amicus briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court on reproductive rights cases.

In 2019, she published a data visualization in Scientific American titled "How to Fix Maternal Mortality: The First Step Is to Stop Blaming Women" — a piece that reframed the maternal mortality crisis not as a problem rooted in individual behavior, but in structural racism. She is currently a Professor at the New York University College of Nursing, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Health Equity, and a board member of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance.

Why This Legacy Matters

Representation in healthcare is about more than visibility. It shapes research priorities, patient trust, clinical decision-making, and health outcomes.

The women highlighted here have helped expand our understanding of health equity, improve maternal health research, advance reproductive justice, and push healthcare systems to better serve all patients. Their work reflects the broader spirit of Juneteenth: progress driven by persistence, advocacy, and the belief that every person deserves dignity and opportunity.

As we celebrate Juneteenth, we honor not only a pivotal moment in American history, but also the Black women who continue to shape the future of healthcare. Their contributions remind us that equity is not a destination. It is an ongoing commitment to building systems that work for everyone.