John,

Yesterday we recognized August 28, a national day to give to Black-led non-profit organizations.

The day also marks important moments in Black Americans’ long fight for freedom and equity. For example, on August 28 1963, over 250,000 people joined the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.

I joined the Black-led group Detroit Justice Center at last year’s Detroit MLK Day Rally and March, where we spoke about his anti-war and pro-worker legacy. I’m proud to work alongside this non-profit law firm in the push for racial justice, economic equity, and a transformed criminal legal system.

Detroit Justice Center’s movement lawyers represent protesters, such as anti-war students for Palestine and people impacted by police brutality—successfully getting charges dismissed. The group has also won transformative victories to protect our right to protest, clear criminal records, and end profit-seeking predatory policing.

Together, we’ve rallied and educated local residents on alternatives to incarceration. As a thought partner, Detroit Justice Center uplifts the needs of currently and formerly incarcerated people, helping shape my policies for housing justice and for shifting public funds to community needs rather than state violence.

Can you continue the tradition of supporting Black organizations at the end of August, and donate to Detroit Justice Center’s critical work today?

Photo from a training led by Detroit Justice Center’s Restorative Justice Network

A national leader in the fight to transform the criminal legal system, Detroit Justice Center fights against the cash bail system and the debt-to-jail pipeline that keeps people locked in cycles of poverty.

While pushing to end racist policing, the group also provides urgent legal services to keep clients out of jail and remove barriers to housing and employment.

Detroit Justice Center helps pay off people’s court debt, expunge records, reunite families involved in the criminal legal system, and keep people in their homes by assisting in eviction cases and helping people keep their water on.

Detroit Justice Center also empowers people to navigate and transform unjust systems and to create solidarity economies with democratically governed cooperatives. They provide legal support to returning citizens seeking to start businesses, as well as to community land trusts seeking to build affordable housing, and worker cooperatives led by Black women and women of color.

Detroit Justice Center is building infrastructure for truly democratic systems and for restorative justice (an alternative way of addressing harm). They’re also pushing to divest from policing and incarceration and instead invest in our communities’ health and well-being. I’m proud to fight for this in Congress: I won’t stop demanding to move money from state violence to community needs such as housing and healthcare.

Detroit Justice Center’s staff and board members include formerly incarcerated people who understand the struggle. A post on their website references the tradition of Black August, which honors political prisoners and those who gave their lives to the movement for Black liberation:

“Black August draws our attention to both a long legacy of Black folks’ resistance to oppression and the role of the prison in suppressing that resistance. Our work at the Detroit Justice Center proudly draws from that long legacy of rebellion and boldly calls for an end to all forms of policing and incarceration.”¹

As we wrap up Black August, will you donate what you can to support Detroit Justice Center’s transformative work for racial justice?

Thank you for helping Detroit Justice Center build “a world where every human life is valued with equal care and consideration and disposing of people is no longer considered justice.”

We’ll keep working toward that world together.

In solidarity,

Rashida

¹ Commemorating Black August and the Ongoing Fight for Freedom

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Rashida Tlaib
Date: Thu, Aug 28, 2025
Subject: I’m uplifting Detroit Justice Center on National Black Giving Day:
To: [email protected]

John,

Today is National Black Giving Day to support Black-led organizations, which are often underfunded and get only 1-2% of philanthropic funding.¹ We must correct this disparity, as part of the urgent work to close the still-growing racial wealth gap between white and Black communities.

I want to lift up the Detroit Justice Center, a Black-led non-profit law firm that’s a national leader in transforming our unjust criminal legal system. They’ve won meaningful policy changes, including securing our right to protest.

Detroit Justice Center uplifts the unique needs of formerly and currently incarcerated people, and has helped shape policies I have introduced in Congress to end mass incarceration and bring about housing justice.

They’ve represented 10,000 clients, including people caught up in the legal system due to poverty, people struggling to keep their water on and stay in their homes, and anti-war student protesters who’ve been targeted because of their advocacy for Palestinian liberation. Their work is urgently needed as those in power increase political repression and aggressive law enforcement.

Last month, Detroit Justice Center got a notification that an environmental justice grant they applied for was unlawfully terminated by the current administration. As the administration targets funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Detroit Justice Center is also facing a downturn in philanthropic support for racial justice work. We need to counter these attacks by the Trump administration with thousands of grassroots donations.

For National Black Giving Day, will you donate now to support Detroit Justice Center and build the movement for Black liberation?

Photo of me with Detroit Justice Center Community Legal Advocate Sonja Bonnet, after she spoke at a rally about the struggle Black Detroiters face with illegal tax foreclosures.

Together, we’ve rallied and educated local residents on alternatives to incarceration—and each year Detroit Justice Center educates the next generation of freedom fighters at our Youth Civic Engagement Fellowship.

Detroit Justice Center has won fights to secure our right to protest and to expand criminal record expungement opportunities. They’re providing urgent legal services to keep clients out of jail—through helping pay off people’s court debt, reinstating licenses, and removing obstacles such as warrants for unpaid fees.

They’re also reuniting families involved in the criminal legal system, and keeping people in their homes by assisting in eviction cases and helping people keep their water on.  

Detroit Justice Center’s initiatives include shifting funds out of policing and increasing investment in non-carceral solutions, training residents on how to mediate harm without relying on police (also known as restorative justice), and helping people imagine a world without prisons or police.

They envision a “future where every life is valued equally,” including “affordable and safe housing for all.”² As part of that vision, Detroit Justice Center pushes for economic self-determination, providing legal support to:

• Community land trusts, which allow residents to own land and decide what development looks like in their neighborhoods so they don’t get pushed out.

• Worker-owned cooperatives, where all members get an equal share of profits and an equal voice in how things run.

• Returning citizens who are pursuing dreams of entrepreneurship.

As Detroit Justice Center explains on their website: “We help establish new ways of organizing society… Resistance, in its most potent form, is not only clear about what it is against, but also specific in what it is aiming for. …We’re actively building up new structures defined by democracy and dignity.”³

The group has established six community land trusts for community-owned affordable housing in majority-Black Detroit, and helped establish 12 worker-owned cooperatives that are BIPOC* woman-led—including a childcare collective, green grocer, and mobile wellness hub. They’re sharing these models with groups building solidarity economies around the country.

Please chip in today to fund Detroit Justice Center’s life-giving work for justice and equity for all.

Thank you,

Rashida

P.S. Whether or not you can donate, you can also support Detroit Justice Center by forwarding this email to your friends and asking them if they can chip in, or by following and sharing posts from Detroit Justice Center on Instagram or Facebook.

*BIPOC means Black, Indigenous, and people of color

¹ Why Give Black?
² DJC Client Goes from Being Unhoused to First-Time Homeowner
³ Commemorating Black August and the Ongoing Fight for Freedom