Bay Area organizers spur Big Tech to recognize Juneteenth

Friday is Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the United States, and many Bay Area employers are giving workers the day off as a paid holiday this year for the first time.

The recognition comes amid increased discussions of race and equality in workplaces, and a growing consensus that companies should do more to address historic and present-day racial injustices.

Hella Creative, a group of Bay Area creative professionals, has been pushing companies nationwide to recognize the holiday through their Hella Juneteenth initiative, compiling resources on the history of Juneteenth and ways to take action.

“We really felt that if the contributions of African Americans in this country are meaningful and valuable, a holiday like Juneteenth should be encoded into the scheme of national holidays as something that represents freedom for all and a new chapter for the country,” Miles Dotson, a member of Hella Creative, said.

Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey was one of the first corporate executives to announce that Juneteenth would be a paid holiday for the two companies going forward, writing on Twitter that it is “a day for celebration, education, and connection.” While his move appeared to be independent of the Hella group’s push, it was a big endorsement for its efforts, as many tech executives followed Dorsey’s lead.

Hella Juneteenth compiled a list of companies that have publicly committed to observing Juneteenth. They include Twitter, Square, Lyft, Netflix, Postmates and Cruise.

Corporate employees at Uber will also have a paid holiday Friday, according to a tweet from CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

Time off isn’t limited to tech. JPMorgan Chase will close all Chase branches at 1 p.m., and employees will still be paid for a full day.

Cruise, a San Francisco self-driving car company backed by General Motors, is also pausing on-road testing for the day and giving vehicle operators the day off.

Juneteenth commemorates the events of June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought news to Texas that the Civil War was over and that enslaved black people would be free. Before this year, large corporations usually did not recognize the day as a holiday.

Companies like Google, Apple, Airbnb, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wells Fargo and Amazon are not giving the day off, but are instead providing educational programming throughout the day.

Apple, for example, held a series of cultural, educational and community virtual events June 17-19, including a discussion about the history of Juneteenth, an open mike and spoken word celebration, and a Juneteenth Musical Celebration. The company is also matching donations two for one for the month of June.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky will lead a conversation with author Carvell Wallace that will address the importance of diverse representation and the role tech plays in creating systemic change as part of a new series of workshops and conversations to honor equal rights and social justice.

Facebook plans to host conversations with notable African American figures and Facebook executives, including academic Michael Eric Dyson and Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, according to spokeswoman Nneka Norville.

“Our hope for the Day of Learning is that we create a space for our Black@(Facebook) community to celebrate while also encouraging allies to reflect and learn together,” Norville wrote in an email.

Wells Fargo is holding a week of virtual events hosted by its Black/African American Connection Team Member Network as well as discussions hosted by senior leaders in celebration of Juneteenth. Spokesman Ruben Pulido said employees who wish to take the day off can do so using a personal holiday, a floating holiday or traditional paid time off.

Salesforce has added Juneteenth to its list of floating holidays that employees can take off, and asks those who choose to work to limit meetings to take time for rest and education. BOLDForce, the company’s black employee resource group, is holding educational programming throughout the day, something they have done yearly since 2018.

Organizers of Hella Juneteenth say this kind of work is important, but companies still need to do more to recognize the holiday by making it a paid day off, especially given its ties to labor.

Dotson points out that slavery was unpaid, compulsory labor that benefited companies. Because of this, he said, Juneteenth should be “a rest day, a day of freedom, so that people have the opportunity to really take in the full meaning of the day.”

“I really think it’s an act of ignorance, in a way,” Dotson said of not giving the day off. “It’s about the notion of repair.”

“It also depends on where you’re getting this education from,” said June Johnson, an event manager and Hella Creative organizer. If events don’t include people who “actually know the history, then it’s kind of more of the same,” she said.

Dotson and Johnson are hopeful that this movement will mark a moment of change for the country.

“Part of our efforts are to make sure that people continue this. It’s not just a day this year, but ongoing,” Johnson said. “This is the start of what we’re hoping to achieve.”

The Hella Creative group has aspirations beyond the Bay Area: They hope to see Juneteenth become a national holiday.

“I think people yearn for acknowledgment, especially African Americans,” Dotson said. “We want it to be acknowledged that our existence matters.”