With Juneteenth right around the corner, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and Square announced both companies will observe the special date as a company holiday.
He made the announcement on Tuesday and said, “Both Twitter and Square are making #Juneteenth (June 19th) a company holiday in the US, forevermore. A day for celebration, education, and connection. Countries and regions around the world have their own days to celebrate emancipation, and we will do the work to make those dates company holidays everywhere we are present.”
The companies will celebrate the holiday every year moving forward. A spokesperson said to CNBC, that Twitter is working to see what dates would make sense to celebrate the end of slavery in the other countries where they currently have offices.
Countries and regions around the world have their own days to celebrate emancipation, and we will do the work to make those dates company holidays everywhere we are present.
— jack (@jack) June 9, 2020
Jack Dorsey’s announcement comes after many major corporations have been showing their support for the Black Lives Matter movement in different ways. As we previously reported, Jack recently donated $ 3 million to Colin Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights Camp.”
For those who may not know, Juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates the date that enslaved African Americans celebrated their emancipation from slavery. The Emancipation of Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, however, June 19, 1865, was the emancipation of the last enslaved African Americans in the Confederacy.
On that date, enslaved African Americans in Texas were finally read the proclamation. Texas was the final Confederate state to have the proclamation announced following the Civil War. Union General Gordon Granger and his soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX to enforce the Emancipation of Proclamation.
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TSR STAFF: Jade Ashley @Jade_Ashley94