The toxic legacy of slavery pervades all parts of our lives in America, including our environment. Communities of color still bear a far greater burden from pollution and are far more likely to lack access to clean food, water and consumer products.

This Juneteenth, EWG stands in solidarity with Black, Indigenous and other people of color in the fight against racial injustice and environmental racism.

To that end, we’re using our email and social media platforms to highlight organizations we believe are leading the way. In honor of Juneteenth, please consider learning more about these environmental justice organizations and making a donation:

National Black Farmers Association
The National Black Farmers Association, or NBFA, is a nonprofit organization representing African American farmers and their families in the United States. As an association, it serves tens of thousands of members nationwide. NBFA's education and advocacy efforts have been focused on civil rights, land retention, access to public and private loans, education and agricultural training, and rural economic development for black and other small farmers.

Deep South Center for Environmental Justice
The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice is dedicated to improving the lives of children and families harmed by pollution and vulnerable to climate change in the Gulf Coast Region through research, education, community and student engagement for policy change, as well as health and safety training for environmental careers.

Black Women for Wellness
Black Women for Wellness is committed to the health and well-being of Black women and girls through health education, empowerment and advocacy.

We ACT
WE ACT’s mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low-income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices.

NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s mission is to achieve equity, political rights, and social inclusion by advancing policies and practices that expand human and civil rights, eliminate discrimination, and accelerate the well-being, education, and economic security of Black people and all persons of color.

Intersectional Environmentalist
IE is a climate justice collective radically imagining a more equitable and diverse future of environmentalism

What is Juneteenth?
Juneteenth commemorates the day when word finally reached Galveston, Texas, home of the most remote enslaved people in the U.S., that the Civil War had ended and that they were free – nearly two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation formally ended slavery.

Although slavery wasn’t legally abolished until December 1865, and though today incarcerated people continue to be forced into labor, Juneteenth has become a day to celebrate the end of slavery in this country.

Last year President Joe Biden officially recognized Juneteenth as a National Day of Observance and called on all people of the United States “to acknowledge and celebrate the end of the Civil War and the emancipation of Black Americans and commit together to eradicate systemic racism that still undermines our founding ideals and collective prosperity.”