Juneteenth is a commemoration of the time – two years after the fact – when enslaved people in Texas learned of their legal freedom. Diana taught business skills to children who visited the UW-Extension booth at the event this year in Fond du Lac. Children made necklaces, calculated the costs of materials they used, and determined a selling price to earn their desired profit: “$2000!”

African-American women-owned businesses in WI outnumber the percentage in 48 other states. Nationally, minority-owned businesses are outperforming nonminority-owned in employment, gross receipts, and overall growth. Equipping and encouraging African-American children to start and run effective businesses in Fond du Lac County is a small but significant way to honor the freedom their families didn’t have to do the same.