EGA President and CEO
This Wednesday, EGA joins the many in observance of Juneteenth. The National holiday honors the remnant of 250,000 Black Americans, who were held in de facto slavery in Galveston, Texas, despite the letter of the law's provision of emancipation. Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of June 19, 1865, and recalls the systemic violence and economic theft of enslavement for four million humans in the United States. EGA honors the day in celebration of Black freedom, the long-term work of joy, and the multigenerational path to restoration and reparation.
The legacy of repair lives in our global, national, and local work; and surfaces in our collective investment of a vocal, dynamic, nuanced, and healthy democracy as an enabling condition for a healthy environment. As environmental grantmakers, our members' work is tied to a tradition of resources in service of basic rights protection and against resource extraction, for people and planet.
We all bear witness to the ongoing harm of racialization, the normalizing of language of dehumanization, the weathering of laborers, and the generational threat of resource extraction. Our members connected to it during our sojourn to the Legacy Museum in Montgomery at last year’s Fall Retreat. Together, we processed four hundred plus (400+) years of trauma, and connected it to today's embodiment of tension, violence, and destabilization that defines so much of our politic. We learned from Black and Indigenous leaders who are actively bridging the gaps to repair people and planet. In response, many of our members established or recommitted to remaining clear about the harm of racial inequity and rooted their work in local and global solutions in grantmaking. (Learn more about Racial Equity in Environmental Philanthropy.)
Every day brings compounding challenges to just resource redistribution and the expansion of freedoms. In our analysis of the Fearless Fund matter, we see the fight between the spirit and letter of the law as an important place where our attention will determine whether we forge ahead for solidarity, or are dashed to pieces, just as our racial justice efforts make an impact. EGA stands in solidarity with you as reinforcements for the most vulnerable communities.
This Juneteenth, we ask you to consider the possibilities of resistance to the numbing effects of war, waste, and degradation. We ask you to examine how you fit into the narrative of the intergenerational struggle for truth, joy, and justice. We amplify with solidarity the ongoing discussion of reparations and celebrate Black life, lives, and livelihoods which are a compounding value to our shared work to meet the destruction of climate change with abundance and possibility.
Warmly,
Tamara
Tamara Toles O’Laughlin
President and CEO
Environmental Grantmakers Association
