21-Day Juneteenth Freedom School Challenge©
This #21DayActionPlan has been co-curated by Drs. Eddie Moore, Fred Dixon, Khalid el-Karim, Shemariah J. Arki and John Igwebuike, Katarina Smiley and Delbert Richardson
We changed things up for this challenge!
Get Started
The 21-Day Action Plan is created to work with the participant(s) – this is how habits are built.
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Individuals
Jump right in! You pick your start day and commit to one of the 9 action categories below on each of those days… yes, it is that simple to get started! The hope is that you will change things up based on your schedule, commitment, and understanding, so you will be able to attempt all activity types.
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Groups or Organizations
Use our Copyright and Recognition Page to get started on the planning and advertising, so your group is cohesive in your approach to the 21-Day Action Plan. Use our Facebook page or Prohabits to stay engaged with each other. As a group you can select which action type and resource to complete as a group or have individuals select for themselves. We have found engagement occurs either way. It is a good idea to plan a pre and post survey and discussion as a group to assess skills building and which challenge you will do next!
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Adapters
We encourage organizations to make the challenge fit their audience. Using the structure, intent, and resources within the 21-Day Action Plans, you can adjust daily design, prompts, or how you choose to reflect and engage as a group. Click HERE for adaptation ideas and examples of how communities are adapting the challenge to meet their specific social justice focus. Remember the required recognition. Reach out to us with your adaptations, so we can share with others.
Choose One Activity Per Day
To further your understanding of power, privilege, supremacy, oppression, and equity.
Read: Encounter new writers and ideas from a range of media sources.
- Juneteenth, Ralph Ellison (2011) (purchase)
- Juneteenth, Explained, Fabiola Cineas (2021)
- Why Celebrating Juneteenth is More Important Now Than Ever, P.R. Lockhart (2018)
- What is Juneteenth? A Brief History and its Present Day Implications, The Grassroots Project
- What is Juneteenth, The New York Times (2021)
- Black Joy Isn’t Frivolous—It’s Necessary, Patia Braithwaite (2020)
- Black Joy is Resistance: Why We Need a Movement to Balance Black Triumph with Trials, Black Youth Project (2017)
- Black Women in Texas History, Bruce A. Glasrud, Merline Pitre Contributor:Angela Boswell (2008)
- Black Joy is Community, Cole Verhoevev (2021)
- Declaration of Independence, (1776)
- General Order No. 3, United States National Archives on the actual official letter dated in 1865 announcing Juneteenth to the people of Texas.
- Berlin 1884: Remembering the conference that divided Africa, Patrick Gathara (2019)
- Second Mohonk Conference on the Negro Question, Isabel C. Barrows (1891)
- Memphis and the Lynching at the Curve, Nathaniel C. Ball (2015)
- 13th Amendment of the United States - read the 13th Amendment carefully and how its language abolished slavery. However, read carefully and note the exceptional language of the Amendment. jgi
- Success Runs in our Race, George Fraser (purchase)
- Long Road to Freedom, Nelson Mandela (purchase)
- Juneteenth by Relando Thompkins-Jones
- Why Juneteenth is a Rallying Cry for Reparations by Rashawn Ray
Children's Books
- The Story of Our Holidays Juneteenth, Joanna Ponto and Angela Leeper (2017)
- Juneteenth,Vauda Micheaux Nelson (2016)
- The Story Behind Juneteenth, Jack Reader (2019)
- Juneteenth for Mazie, Floyd Cooper (2016)
Listen in on the kinds of open, honest conversations that too many of us avoid having.
The songs listed in Inspire are ways to celebrate and share your understanding of Juneteenth.
Additionally, here is a way to listen to the storytelling and experience through sound.
Watch and learn. We've offered everything from short videos to full-length films.
- Celebrating Juneteenth, National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Juneteenth Explained , Vox (2020)
- This Is Why Juneteenth Is Important for America , The Root (2018)
- The Angry Heart explores the impact of racism on health and longevity. (57 minutes)
- Birth of a White Nation, a keynote speech by legal scholar Jacqueline Battalora, offers a blow-by-blow description of the moment the idea of, and word for, “white” people entered U.S. legal code. (36 minutes)
Notice: Why didn’t I see this sooner? It’s easy to overlook what we’re not looking for.
Once people start to learn about white privilege and America’s systems of oppression through history, they often ask, “Why didn’t I see this sooner?” Juneteenth 2021 brings a new reason to celebrate as it is now a federal holiday.
We have included two new options for this activity below:
DO
- Participate in the The 1619 Project The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.
GO
- Visit The National Museum Of African American History And Culture in Washington DC. You may need three days to fully immerse yourself in the rich collection and archives.
- Visit the Martin Luther King memorial in DC.
Follow Racial Justice activists, educators, organizations, and movements on social media.
Consider connecting with any of the people /organizations you learn about in the above resources. Here are more ideas to widen your circle of who you follow. Pro Tip: check out who these organizations follow, quote, repost, and retweet to find more people/organizations to follow.
Black liberation activists, educators, and organizations on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Engage in racially mixed settings. Be a learner more than a knower.
This can be the hardest part for people new to racial justice work. Engaging in racially mixed settings can trigger age-old power and privilege dynamics. The goal is to be a learner more than a knower, exactly the opposite of what dominant U.S. culture teaches us to be.
Here are some Engagement Tips to guide you:
- Enter the process to learn and bridge knowledge gaps.
- Enter the process to practice mindful social habits like the ones below.
- Work to stay engaged even when your mind and body start sending you signals to shrink or walk away.
- Ask clarifying questions.
- Acknowledge what you don’t know.
- Validate others by listening closely and believing the truth and importance of what they are sharing.
- Share airtime so that multiple perspectives are shared.
- Step Up Step Back. If you are generally quiet, step up and practice speaking more. If you are generally a talker, practice stepping back and listening more.
- Notice your biases and judgments as they arise. These are gold for you to excavate your subconscious!
- Notice when you are uncomfortable. Reflect on why you’re uncomfortable and think about what you can do to build more emotional stamina in this area.
- Honor confidentiality. Though you can share what you are learning in general terms, do not repeat stories in a way that can be traced back to the person who shared it.
- Find a mentor within your own racial group to support and guide your growth.
If you are white, join a Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) chapter in your area.
Google who’s who in your area by typing in ‘Racial Justice” or “Anti-Racist/m” + name of city/town, organization, or sector. A few website visits, emails, and phone calls later, you’ll likely have an idea of how to get on the mailing of one or more organizations in your area who are addressing issues of power and privilege. Once you connect to one, it’s easy to connect to many!
Research racial justice speakers and see who might be coming to your local university, church, community center, or speaker series.
Take a course or workshop. Community Colleges and Adult Education Centers are a great place to find a course about social justice issues.
Act: Flex your skills. Take action to interrupt power and privilege dynamics.
Though many white people want to jump to action sooner instead of later, action without a vigorous self-education and self-reflection practice can unexpectedly reproduce the very power and privilege dynamics we seek to interrupt in this work. Here are a few actions that you might consider:
- Invite friend/s, family, and/or colleagues to do the 21 Day Challenge with you.
- Prepare yourself to interrupt racial jokes. Click here for some advice about how.
Let people know you are not neutral!
Reflect on what you choose to do, what you’re learning, and how you are feeling.
Reflecting and Journaling is a crucial piece of the challenge. Plan to take time everyday to reflect on what you chose to do, what you’re learning, and how you are feeling. Difficult emotions such as shame and anger, though uncomfortable to feel, can guide you to deeper self-awareness about how power and privilege impacts you and the people in your life. At the very least, use the “Reflect” space on the reflecting journal tool.
Create a Soundtrack4Justice playlist that fuels you and/or can serve as a conversation starter with people of all ages.
Download the Apple Music Playlist Here.
Download the Spotify Playlist Here.
Download the Youtube Playlist Here.
- Get Up, Stand Up / Bob Marley
- Give Your Hands to Struggle / Sweet Honey in the Rock
- We The People / Tribe Called Quest
- Where Is The Love / Black Eyed Peas
- LIBERATED (Hands Up to The Sky) / Liv Grace
- White Privilege / Mackelmore
- Freedom / Beyonce
- Our Lives Matter / OnRaé LaTeal ft Afriye and Marley
- Black Parade / Beyonce
- Take Back the Power / Raury
- A Change is Gonna Come / Same Cooke
- Keep Ya Head Up / Tupac
- They Don’t Care About Us / Michael Jackson
- Lift Every Voice & Sing / Kirk Franklin
- Say it Loud I’m Black and I’m Proud / James Brown
- Lean On Me / Bill Withers
- Wake Up Everybody / Marvin Gaye
- Fight the Power (Public Enemy)
- We shall overcome [Morehouse Men’s Choir]
- Amazing Grace Wintley Phipps
- Weary / Solange
- Baldwin / Jamila Woods
- Have Some Love / Childish Gambino
- King Kunta / Kendrick Lamar
- Alright / Kendrick Lamar
- Already / Beyonce
- No More Tear Drops / Vic Mensa
- What’s Going On / Marvin Gaye
- Inner City Blues / Marvin Gaye
- 444 / Jay-Z
- Build Black Futures | OnRaé LaTeal ft. Fresco Steez and BYP100
- Brown Skin Girl / Beyonce
- Young, Gifted, and Black / Nina Simone
- Brighter Day / Kirk Franklin
- Shackles / Mary Mary
- Brown Skin / India.Arie
- How Great / Chance the Rapper
- Blessings / Chance the Rapper
- Amerikkkan Idol / Joey Bada$
- Jesus Walks / Kanye West
- The Payback / James Brown
- U.N.I.T.Y / Queen Latifah
- The Bigger Picture / Lil Baby
- Shades of Blue / Vic Mensa
- Someday We’ll All Be Free / Donny Hathaway
- GIOVANNI / Jamila Woods
- Middle Finger to the Law / OnRaé LaTeal ft. Fresco Steez + BYP100 Choir

Guidelines:
If you are using, revising or editing the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge © content created by Dr. Eddie Moore Jr. and his team at The Privilege Institute, giving credit to the creators is required. Remember, now more than ever, you/your organization must always give credit for the social justice tools/ideas created by BIPOC folks doing and leading Antiracist work. We’ve made it easy to give the proper recognition to be used on websites, social media sites, in email communication, during interviews and/or infomercials. Click HERE for our copyright information and tools to incorporate the required recognition in your plan. We are committed to offering the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge © free of charge. We are constantly enhancing the materials, monitoring social media pages, responding to inquiries/questions, and Moore.