It’s Juneteenth, which is the official federal holiday commemorating the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas at the end of the Civil War. This is the fifth year the United States has recognized it as a federal holiday, and seeing how racial justice and economic justice are deeply intertwined, we felt it was important to give this day the proper attention it deserves.
Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered.
Black Americans still face systemic discrimination in just about every facet of their lives—from the healthcare system, law enforcement, the courts, the education system, and more. There are a number of reasons why America’s “racial wealth gap” is so massive. Redlining, blockbusting, excluding Black veterans from the post-WWII GI Bill, and Black people being swindled into predatory subprime mortgages that ultimately created the 2008 financial crisis are all frequently cited as major contributors. This is what we mean when we say white supremacy and the lasting impacts of slavery still harm our society, economy, and democracy today.
If you’re looking for resources to better understand how this is the case, here’s what we’d recommend reading:
Our Closer Look from June 2025 about how the sub-minimum wage (also known as the tipped minimum wage) is a vestige from slavery. After the Civil War, business owners who still wanted to exploit formerly enslaved Black people brought the idea of tipping over from Europe to America, but with a financial twist to it: they decided that tips would replace wages entirely for Black workers.
Our Closer Look from February 2026 about how early labor laws excluded Black Americans. The targeted exclusion of occupations that mainly employed Black people from minimum wage and Social Security provisions during the New Deal means that not only do Black families still hold less generational wealth, but there remains to this day a wage gap based on race, to say nothing of the wage gap when considering both race and gender.
Our pals at ITEP wrote this insightful piece about how one of the most powerful drivers of that inequity is our tax system. As they eloquently put it: “Juneteenth is often described as a celebration of delayed justice. But it should also be a reminder that justice delayed is justice denied. The inequities embedded in our tax system will not correct themselves. They require intentional action, guided by a clear understanding of who benefits and who bears the cost. If we are serious about honoring the legacy of Juneteenth, we must move beyond commemoration to transformation. That means building a tax system and an economy that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.”
“Spread the power” is our core third principle here at Patriotic Millionaires. That means understanding how orchestrated attacks on voting rights are becoming commonplace across the country. In the past two decades, we’ve witnessed the Supreme Court of the United States wipe out a generation of work by civil rights activists. See this from the Brennan Center: The Supreme Court’s Failure to Protect Voting Rights. There is a tie between attacks on voting rights and it disproportionately harming Black Americans and other racial minorities, as well as young and elderly voters, people with lower incomes, and people with disabilities.
When we eliminate barriers to financial and political freedom, we take a step forward in the fights for both economic justice and racial justice. The same can be said for just about every aspect of the economy, from the tax code to labor laws to antitrust laws and more. We hope you use this federal holiday as an opportunity to better understand how our movement toward a stronger economy and country is intrinsically connected with advancing racial justice.
Thank you for all you do,
The Patriotic Millionaires
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