The New York Giants will close the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey on Friday in recognition of Juneteenth, which will now become an official company holiday.
“In honor of Juneteenth, our offices will be closed on Friday. This is a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, and the Giants will recognize June 19 as a holiday,” Giants ownership said in an e-mail, via Art Stapleton of USA TODAY. “We hope all of you and your families are doing well and continuing to stay safe.”
June 19 is celebrated as the date when slavery officially ended in the United States.
While the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863, the final newly freed American slaves were not read President Abraham Lincoln’s decree until June 19, 1865, roughly two months after the conclusion of the Civil War.
The Giants are the latest to join the NFL league offices in declaring Juneteenth a company holiday.
“The power of this historical feat in our country’s blemished history is felt each year, but there is no question that the magnitude of this event weighs even more heavily today in the current climate,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a recent statement. “Juneteenth not only marks the end of slavery in the United States, but it also symbolizes freedom — a freedom that was delayed, and brutally resisted; and though decades of progress followed, a freedom for which we must continue to fight.”
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