Juneteenth gets its name from the combination of June and Nineteenth and is celebrated annually on June 19. It’s also called Emancipation Day and Freedom Day.
A small but growing number of Boston-area businesses are giving their employees time off for the upcoming Juneteenth holiday, part of the national reckoning that has followed the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.
Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19 each year — this upcoming Friday — commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. It marks the date in 1865 that Union soldiers declared in Texas that slaves in the state were free, following the end of the Civil War.
Juneteenth
Few employers have traditionally given their workforce the day off. But more are doing so this week, in recognition of the calls for reflection about racism in the U.S., given Floyd’s death and the protests against police brutality that have resulted nationwide.
