06/19/2026
Today we honor Juneteenth, commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States, and celebrate the remarkable legacy of Dr. David McDonogh, America's first African American ophthalmologist.
Born into slavery, Dr. McDonogh was among the first enslaved individuals to receive a college education and trained at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in the mid-1800s. Despite being denied a medical degree because of racial discrimination, he went on to practice as an eye specialist in Manhattan for more than 40 years.
In 2018, Columbia University posthumously awarded Dr. McDonogh the medical degree he was unjustly denied—a powerful recognition of his perseverance, excellence, and lasting impact on medicine.