July Month Long Observances

• Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Mental Health Month
• Disability Pride Month 
• French-American Heritage Month

Disability Pride Month

Did you know that July is Disability Pride Month? This is a time to celebrate the diverse community of people with disabilities, reflect on the progress that has been made to close the equity gap so that individuals can feel empowered to live with dignity, and focus on the work that lies ahead in building inclusive communities. For instance, major inequalities persist in transportation, digital access, physical barriers and many other areas that prevent more than one billion people with disabilities, worldwide, from fully participating in society.

Disability Pride Month is celebrated in July, commemorating the signing of the Americans with Disabilities enacted on July 26, 1990. This law was a landmark that extended civil rights protections to people with disabilities. 

The Disability Pride Month flag is a charcoal gray flag with five parallel colored stripes in a diagonal band that runs from the top left to the bottom right corner:

• Red: Represents physical disabilities such as stroke, arthritis, and spinal cord injuries
• Gold: Represents neurodiversity such as autism spectrum disorder, brain injuries, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity
• White: Non-apparent or invisible disabilities and undiagnosed disabilitiesBlue: Represents emotional and psychiatric disabilities, including mental illness, anxiety, and depression
• Green: Represents sensory disabilities such as deafness, blindness or low vision, lack of smell, lack of taste, audio processing disorder, and all other sensory disabilities
• Background: Represents mourning and rage for victims of ableist violence and abuse
• Diagonal Stripes: Symbolizes cutting across barriers that disabled people face, and is meant to allude to the idea of light cutting through the darkness

The flag's design also commemorates and mourns disabled people who have died due to ableism, violence, negligence, suicide, rebellion, illness, or forced sterilization.

July 2 – Thurgood Marshall’s Birthday

Thurgood Marshall was the Supreme Court’s first Black Justice. He is also widely known for arguing the case of Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) on behalf of the Browns and the NAACP. Marshall helped change the course of the United States when the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. This case signaled the end of legalized racial segregation within U.S. schools, overruling the "separate but equal" criteria established in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case. 

July 4 – U.S. Independence Day

July 4, marks the day in 1776 when the United States declared its independence from Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress, stating that the 13 American colonies were now free and self-governing. Today, the holiday is celebrated with fireworks, parades, and gatherings to honor the country’s founding.