Congress vested responsibility for the administration of the Smithsonian in a 17-member Board of Regents.

As specified in the Smithsonian's charter, the Chief Justice of the United States and the Vice President of the United States are ex officio members of the Board, meaning that they serve as a duty of their office. The Chief Justice also serves as the Chancellor of the Smithsonian.

There are six congressional Regents: three Senators are appointed by the President pro tempore of the United States Senate and three Representatives are appointed by the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Their terms on the Board coincide with their elected terms in Congress, and they may be reappointed to the Board if reelected.

Nine Regents are from the general public, two of whom must reside in the District of Columbia and seven of whom must be inhabitants of the 50 states (but no two from the same state). Each is nominated by the Board of Regents and appointed for a statutory term of six years by a Joint Resolution of the Congress, which is then signed into law by the President. In accordance with the Bylaws adopted by the Board of Regents in 1979, citizen members may not serve more than two successive terms.

https://www.si.edu/Governance/Members

When word leaked out that President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the 1863 document outlining the legal end of slavery in the United States, jubilation swept through the North. As far north as Vermont, church bells rang out in celebration. And on Friday, as America’s first African-American president dedicates America’s first national museum of African-American history, a famous bell will be rung in an echo of that happy day 153 years ago.

The bell in question is called the Freedom Bell, and it was specially restored for the event. Cast in 1886 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Williamsburg, Virginia’s historic First Baptist Church, the bell has long stood silent. That will all change on Friday, though, as the newly restored bell makes a trip to Washington for the the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. As the President rings the Freedom Bell in lieu of a ribbon-cutting, bells all over the country will ring in unison. At last count, at least 17 churches around the nation had plans to ring their bells in celebration.

“Everything’s coming full circle,” says Pastor Reverend Dr. Reginald Davis, who presides over the congregation of First Baptist. Davis wasn’t in church—he was riding on a bus that accompanied the bell from Williamsburg to Washington. And for the pastor, who is known for his scholarship on African-American icons like Frederick Douglass and his work interpreting scripture through an African-American lens, the bell means more than a chance to ring in a new museum.

“This bell represents the spirit of America,” Davis explains. For over a century, it’s been connected with a church whose history reads like a litany of the struggles and challenges faced by African-Americans throughout the nation’s history. Founded in 1776, the church was founded in defiance of laws that prevented black people from congregating or preaching. Gowan Pamphlet, the church’s first pastor, organized secret church outdoor church services for slaves and free people and survived whippings and accusations of criminal activity for the sake of his freedom to worship. But the church survived, and in memory of the congregation’s struggle for liberty and the wider struggles of African-Americans, the church’s women’s auxiliary raised money for a commemorative bell.