While many private companies in the region are giving employees a paid day off on Juneteenth (June 19), local governments are looking to take similar action.

The day off is to commemorate when the last slaves were freed from bondage in Texas in 1865, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation across the reunited nation. The announcement from businesses of the paid day off comes after weeks of protests in the District and across the nation calling for an end to racism and police brutality following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Ron Flagg, president of Legal Services Corporation, the largest funder of legal aid programs in the United States, said they will be closing their offices at noon on Friday to commemorate the day.

“We hope to not only mark Juneteenth as a celebration but as a continuation of LSC’s ongoing efforts to learn from each other and use that learning to address and confront racism,” Flagg said.

Flagg said the impetus for the half-day off came after speaking with his colleagues.

“I think people felt anger, angst, bewilderment, and a desire to move forward to confront racism,” he said.

Other companies around the region are providing full days off for their employees, the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union tweeted that many of its members will be getting the day off so they can participate in “activism and commemorate an end to slavery.”

Steve Salis, owner of The Federalist Pig, Ted’s Bulletin, Sidekick, and Kramerbooks, is giving all of his employees a paid day off. The decision to close for the day was made following protests in the District and nationwide. A spokesperson for the restaurant said, in this particular moment, there has been a collective willingness to achieve equality and justice, and Salis wants to be attuned to the need of his employees in the service industry most of whom are Black and Hispanic.

DC-area media companies are also following suit. The Washington Post is allowing employees to take off and, if they have to work, they can take another day off over the next year.

“The last few months has been stressful and exhausting, and the heartbreaking last couple of weeks has only compounded feelings of anger and sadness,” Fred Ryan, the paper’s publisher, wrote in a memo to employees. “We feel it, and we know our black colleagues feel it even more acutely.”

Slate CEO Dan Check wrote to employees in a memo that the day is “a reminder that change comes not through words alone, but when those words are combined with sustained action.”

PBS’s administrative offices will also be closed and said they encourage their employees “to take this time for listening, reflection, education, and civic engagement.”

An NPR employee told WAMU/DCist that in an all-staff teleconference Wednesday, CEO John Lansing announced that Juneteenth would be a company holiday beginning next year.

Local Governments Declare The Holiday

While 47 states and the District already recognize Juneteenth as a day of observance, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Tuesday declared it a state holiday and a paid day off for executive branch employees. Maryland lawmakers are also following suit.

“A day of observance is one thing and I don’t discount it, but I almost equated it to talk as opposed to action,” Del. Andrea Fletcher Harrison (D-Prince George’s County) said.

Harrison is taking action in Maryland and drafting legislation for the 2021 session to make Juneteenth a statewide holiday and a paid day off for state employees. She says she’d like the day to be commemorated by residents participating in community service or registering to vote.

Prince George’s County Councilmember Derrick Davis introduced a resolution at the county council’s Tuesday meeting to recognize Juneteenth as a day of observance for the county. Davis is also supporting the statewide legislation and says he didn’t know about Juneteenth until he was in college.

“It’s a sad reality that we don’t know our history,” Davis said. “Ultimately, I would like our young folks to understand the significance of Juneteenth and the more people understand the significance of these types of events, the more we understand how to include one another in this more perfect union.”

Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando is writing a letter requesting Gov. Larry Hogan to declare Juneteenth a state holiday and paid day off for state employees.

“I’m giving my staff off,” Jawando said. “And I’m encouraging other businesses and folks who can do so to commemorate it as well.”

Jawando says declaring Juneteenth a national holiday would be a step in addressing the U.S.’s race relations. He compared it to South Africa’s truth and reconciliation following the end of apartheid in 1994.

“In our country, we’ve never had that formal process,” he said. “We’ve never really acknowledged how entangled racism is in everything we do.”

Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office said D.C. already has its own paid day off for city employees on April 16 to mark the date in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln freed enslaved men and women in the District.

Last week, the Montgomery County Council declared racism to be a public health emergency in the county. Councilmembers said they hope to focus on racial disparities in criminal justice and public health, which have been intensified by the COVID19 pandemic.

Harrison and others said ultimately they would like to see Juneteenth become a national holiday like Independence Day.

This story has been updated with comment from Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office.