THE CAUSE: Celebrating Juneteenth and helping restore, manage, and enhance Emancipation Park in Houston, TX.

THE CHALLENGE: This is a collective challenge from 6/19/22 to 6/25/22 to celebrate Juneteenth. Please join us in taking 250,000 within the week. For every 250,000 steps, we will donate $150 to Emancipation Park Conservatory in Houston. Screenshot your steps during this week and submit them at the link below. Submissions will be accepted until 6/30/22 at 11:59 PM EST. 

THE WHY: On June 19, 1865, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce the Union had won the war and informing the residents that slavery would not be tolerated anymore. This proclaimed that the roughly 250,000 enslaved people remaining in Texas were now free. Not all of those enslaved were released immediately, however, as some oppressors waited until another harvest had passed and others out right refused to follow the order. 

To celebrate Juneteenth, formerly enslaved people and their descendants traveled to Galveston each year. However, the end of the war was not the end of discrimination and white people often prohibited Black people from celebrating in public spaces. In a creative endeavor utilizing both their newly earned right to property ownership and the desire to have a place to host Juneteenth celebrations, four formerly enslaved individuals worked together to raise $1000 to buy 10 acres of land in 1872. Today, that land is known as Emancipation Park and is celebrating its 150th birthday this year. To celebrate Juneteenth, please step with us and support restoring, managing and enhancing a crucial piece of our history.

Pruitt-Young, Sharon. Special Series Juneteenth: Slavery Didn't End On Juneteenth. What You Should Know About This Important Day. 17 June 2021. National Public Radio. npr.org/2021/06/17/1007315228/juneteenth-what-is-origin-observation

Emancipation Park Conservancy. History. 2021. epconservancy.org/mission-core/history/