Black Liberation IS Reproductive Justice: A Juneteenth Message from Executive Director, Kamyon Conner
Dear TEAm,
Juneteenth marks the day when enslaved Black people in Texas finally learned they had been declared free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Even after 1863, over 250,000 Black people in Texas remained enslaved, while plantation owners continued to profit from stolen labor and stolen lives. Freedom was delayed, resisted, and denied.
That history matters because the fight for bodily autonomy and Black liberation has never been separate.
Juneteenth is not just another celebration. It is a reminder of Black people’s resistance, resilience, brilliance, and survival in the face of systems designed to deny us humanity. It calls on all of us to reckon with the truth that freedom in this country has always been unevenly distributed and intentionally withheld from Black communities.
As the first Black queer woman to lead TEA Fund in the organization’s history, both as Executive Director and previously as a board member, I carry that understanding with me every day. Black leadership in reproductive justice spaces is still too often treated as an exception instead of the standard. Yet Black women, Black queer people, and Black families continue to be at the center of the work, the organizing, and the survival strategies that sustain our communities.
At TEA Fund, we know reproductive justice is larger than abortion access alone. Reproductive justice means having the power and resources to decide if, when, and how to build a family. It means being able to raise children in safe communities free from state violence, criminalization, environmental harm, poverty, and racism. It means trusting Black people to make decisions about our own bodies, families, and futures.
And in Texas, we know these systems are deeply connected.
Black Texans continue to face disproportionate barriers to health care, higher maternal mortality rates, and increased criminalization when seeking reproductive care. The same systems rooted in white supremacy that once controlled Black people through enslavement now show up through abortion bans, attacks on gender affirming care, underfunded health care systems, over-policing, and policies that punish people simply for surviving.
Every day at TEA Fund, we hear from people navigating impossible choices while carrying the weight of systemic racism and economic injustice. Black women continue to make up more than half of callers seeking abortion funding and support. That is why racial justice cannot be separate from reproductive justice work; it must remain central to everything we do.
We are committed to eradicating Ant-Blackness from the work that we do at our organization, and we hold ourselves accountable to it. It requires ongoing accountability, internal reflection, and action. We continue working to reduce anti-Blackness within our own systems and workplace culture while uplifting organizations leading the fight for Black liberation, including SisterSong, National Birth Equity Collaborative, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, Black Feminist Future, Movement for Black Lives, and Mothers Against Police Brutality.
I am grateful for your support of TEA Fund and for the trust you place in us and my leadership. Our communities are being asked to survive relentless attacks on bodily autonomy, democracy, and collective care. But Black people have always built futures in the middle of uncertainty. That legacy continues through this work.
This Juneteenth, I hope we move beyond symbolism and toward action. Beyond statements and into solidarity. Beyond celebration and into investment.
Support Black-led reproductive justice work. Support Black organizers. Support Black futures.
One meaningful way to do that is by becoming a GEM — a supporter who Gives Every Month. Your monthly gift sustains abortion access, preventive reproductive care, and organizing at the root of this work.
In Solidarity,
Kamyon Conner, she/her
Executive Director
