NEW YORK (Reuters) – Google and the National Football League have joined a growing list of U.S. private sector organizations choosing to commemorate June 19th, the date marking the emancipation of the last remaining slaves at the end of the U.S. Civil War.
A 3D printed Google logo is seen in this illustration taken April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, has instructed employees to cancel unnecessary meetings on “Juneteenth,” according to a staff memo seen by Reuters. Meanwhile, the NFL has decided to recognize the date as a league holiday and will close the league office.
The date is celebrated as African Americans’ Independence Day, and this year marks the 155th anniversary of the end of slavery in the United States in 1865.
Google and the NFL are the latest high-profile names from the private sector to recognize Juneteenth amid a nationwide outcry over racism in the United States sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in polic