Juneteenth 2026 Week in Peterboro NY begins with the opening of an exhibit at the Smithfield Community Center. The content of the large eight panels was created for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in 2011 by abolition scholar Milton C. Sernett PhD and fabricated by Scott Hughes, formally of Madison County Tourism. The eight foot square panels are loaded with photographs, posters, broadsides, documents, and records that provide a source of information on people, places, and events that were part of the steps toward freedom in the United States.
This traveling exhibit was created to introduce the plight of the enslaved and those that struggled to abolish the institution of slavery in America. The topics of the panels are
• The Colonial and Revolutionary Eras: Slavery and Anti-Slavery
• Freedom Now! From Colonization to Immediatism
• Proclaiming Liberty: Abolitionist Means
• The Politics of Slavery and Abolition:
“Right is of no Sex; Truth is of no color.” Frederick Douglass, North Star, 1848
• North Star Shining: The Underground Railroad
* The Terrible Swift Sword:
Freedom and Reconstruction: Days of Jubilee & Struggle
Dr. Sernett, professor emeritus African American Studies, Syracuse University, is an abolition scholar, author, and a popular speaker on history. Sernett is a founder and a Cabinet member of the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum and serves on the NAHOF Induction Committee. Among his published books are NORTH STAR COUNTRY: Upstate New York and the Crusade for African American Freedom and HARRIET TUBMAN: Myth, Memory, and History.
The free exhibit is open to the public June 16 - 22 from 12 – 4 pm.
NATIONAL ABOLITION HALL of FAME and MUSEUM
Smithfield Community Center
5255 Pleasant Valley Road Peterboro NY 13134