NEW YORK – Nike, the NFL and other businesses will give their employees a day off for Juneteenth for the first time this year, the latest example of how American employers are responding to protests that have placed additional attention on racial injustice in the U.S.Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865 when Major General Gordon Granger came to Galveston, Texas, to announce the end of the Civil War and slavery.
Although slavery was already abolished more than two years earlier by the Emancipation Proclamation, it continued in some areas.Texans began celebrating the day a year later with parades and parties.