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20 ¦ JUNE 22, 2020 NEWS

A Growing Movement To Make Juneteenth a
Federal Holiday

By Kibkabe Araya

The protests have put a spotlight not only on embedded racism in every part of society, including in the workplace,

but also on the public’s insufficient education on U.S. history when it relates to African Americans.

D (Image: Shutterstock)
ue to recent events that have sparked a conver- reaction of protests across the U.S. and around the
sation on racial injustice, Juneteenth, a holiday globe that have remained active for three weeks
mostly celebrated by the African American now. The protests have put a spotlight not only on
community, has exploded into popularity to the point embedded racism in every part of society, including
where several major companies have declared June 19 in the workplace, but also on the public’s insufficient
a paid holiday. education on U.S. history when it relates to African
But general counsel from Eventbrite Inc., Master- Americans.
card International Inc. and Adobe Inc. say credit is Juneteenth is the oldest holiday to mark the end
due to their culture-based employee resource groups of slavery in the U.S. On June 19, 1865, the Union
and diversity and inclusion groups who proposed Ju- soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger,
neteenth to be an official holiday and asked employees arrived in Galveston, Texas, delivering the news
to educate themselves with resources from books to that the Civil War had ended and the enslaved had
music as work-from-home policies are still intact. been granted freedom. The Emancipation Proc-
The May 25 police killing of George Floyd, an lamation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln
unarmed black man in Minneapolis, set off a chain to end slavery, became official on Jan. 1, 1863, but

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