Mobilizing Wealth for Reparations

Jun 21, 2023

Monday, June 19, marked Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when enslaved African Americans in Texas were finally informed of the Emancipation Proclamation that ensured their freedom鈥攁lmost 2 1/2 years after it was signed by President Abraham Lincoln.

For centuries Juneteenth was marked largely by the Black community. But in June 2021, a year after the historic racial justice uprisings sparked by George Floyd鈥檚 murder, President Joe Biden signed a declaring Juneteenth a federal holiday and calling it 鈥渁 day in which we remember the moral stain and terrible toll of slavery on our country鈥攚hat I鈥檝e long called America鈥檚 original sin.鈥�

To commemorate Juneteenth, YES! is launching a series of interviews conducted in Atlanta at a recent conference organized by the . The conference helped to mobilize the movement for reparations for Black Americans.

Edgar Villanueva, principal of the Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital and author of the bestselling book, , spoke with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar in Atlanta about the conference and the movement for reparations.

This video is part of Realizing Reparations, an exclusive digital series exploring the leading edges of the reparations ecosystem鈥攁nd revealing a path toward healing and reconciliation.

This series was funded by a grant from Liberated Capital, a fund of , which is led by Edgar Villanueva, of the Lumbee tribe, and works globally to disrupt the existing systems of moving and controlling capital using education and healing programs, radical reparative giving, and storytelling. Reporting and production of the series was funded by this grant, but YES! maintained full editorial control of the content published herein. Read our editorial independence policy.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent 麻豆社事件 Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.