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The New Orleans Saints will acknowledge a new company holiday on Friday, June 19 by recognizing Juneteenth, as first reported by ESPN’s Mike Triplett and confirmed by Nola.com’s Amie Just. Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football added that team staff were given the day off. Team owner Gayle Benson and president Dennis Lauscha made the decision to observe Juneteenth for both the Saints and the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans.
Juneteenth (also called Jubilee Day, or America’s Second Independence Day) is the celebration of the arrival of Union troops to Texas after Confederate leadership surrendered at Appomattox, Va., ending the Civil War. This allowed the enforcement of President Abraham Lincoln’s 1862 Emancipation Proclamation, effectively ending slavery in the United States.
While Juneteenth has not been recognized as a federal holiday, it has been observed in Louisiana since 2003. Several other NFL teams and the league office itself have recently made the call to observe it in the wake of nationwide Black Lives Matter protests following the killing of Minneapolis man George Floyd.
Saints players like Malcolm Jenkins have taken a leading role in those demonstrations, so this is a move that could resonate with them. If nothing else, taking this symbolic step is a great gesture by Benson, Lauscha, and Saints-Pelicans management.
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