Juneteenth represents the day the last enslaved Africans in Texas learned that they were free according to the laws of the United States. This was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, meaning that many white land owning Texans benefited from the continued unpaid labor of Black Americans post Emancipation. This unpaid labor that Enslaved Africans were forced to perform for centuries generated billions of dollars of generational wealth for white communities and families that still shapes and defines the United States presently. This has directly resulted in the inequitable racial wealth gap that exists today.

Now that Juneteenth is a federal holiday, non-Black people who have benefited from this racial wealth who are on salary now get a PAID HOLIDAY OFF, yet Black people who are the descendants of those stolen through the transatlantic slave trade still have not received economic reparations for centuries of unpaid labor. This Juneteenth, consider contributing your Paid Time Off wages from this new National Holiday to Creative Justice or another Black-led organization as a form of economic justice because economic justice is also racial justice.

Creative Justice is a Black founded and led community healing and arts organization that serves majority Black young people, meeting material needs by providing free arts and culture programming and healing opportunities to youth and young adults impacted courts and carceral systems. In addition to arts and healing curriculum provided by skilled and culturally relevant artists and practitioners, we provide holistic life and wellness support in the way of nutritious meals and access to healing opportunities at all programming, events and meetings, in addition to stipends for all Creative Justice participants, grocery cards, health, hygiene and beauty supplies, housing support, court and systems navigation support, life skills, career development, and wellness and mental health support.

Creative Justice also strives to provide all of our staff, all of whom have been impacted by carceral systems and the majority of whom are the descendants of formerly enslaved Black peoples, with thriving wages and benefits. We cannot and we will not further extract unpaid or under compensated labor from our communities while working to undo and heal the trauma inflicted upon our communities by unjust, racist systems. A part of creating healthier, safer communities is economic justice which is also racial justice.

We encourage non-Black community members to consider joining the “A Days Wage” campaign by contributing your Paid Time Off wages from this new National Holiday to Creative Justice or another Black-led organization as a form of economic justice and racial justice.