Rockets use Juneteenth as paid day off for employees to reflect

“The Houston Rockets organization will reflect, celebrate, and educate today in honor of Juneteenth,” the team said in a statement.

With a growing global focus on racial justice, the Houston Rockets are one of many NBA organizations using Friday, June 19 as a day of reflection.

Known as Juneteenth, June 19 is the oldest nationally celebrated U.S. commemoration of the ending of slavery. Dating back to 1865, it was on that day that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and that the enslaved were now free.

In a statement posted Friday morning, the Rockets said they would “reflect, celebrate and educate today in honor of Juneteenth.”

According to Kelly Iko of The Athletic, the Rockets and other NBA teams have also been invited to participate in a virtual private screening of the new documentary “John Lewis: Good Trouble.”

Using interviews and rare archival footage, the film chronicles Lewis’ 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, and well beyond. The civil rights leader has served as a U.S. Congressman from Georgia’s 5th District since 1987.

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