Ravens join push to make Juneteenth a paid holiday
The Ravens will join the NFL and a growing list of league franchises in recognizing Juneteenth as a paid holiday, a team spokesman said Wednesday.
The Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills will be closed Friday as the team observes the day slavery effectively ended in the United States.
The NFL announced Friday that it would be closing its offices to commemorate the holiday, and over half of the league’s teams have said they will give their employees the day off.
“In light of all the recent events in the past several weeks, it seems a particularly appropriate time for us to recognize Juneteenth as a holiday this year and in future years,” Ravens president Dick Cass said in a a statement Wednesday, referring to recent protests over racial inequality and police brutality. “Celebrating Juneteenth will give us all an opportunity to reflect on howfar wehave come and how far we have to go.”
Juneteenth marks the anniversary of June, 19, 1865, when Union general Gordon Granger read federal orders in Galveston, Texas, that all enslaved people were free and the Civil War was over. That came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.
Juneteenth was recognized as a holiday in Maryland in 2014, and all but three states nationwide observe June 19 as either a state holiday, ceremonial holiday or day of observance. Activists are campaigning for the U.S. Congress to recognize it as a national holiday.
Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti endorsed the “Black Lives Matter” movement in a team-produced video Friday in which players, coaches and team officials decried racism. The organization and Bisciotti’s foundation also committed to a $1 million donation to support social-justice reform in Baltimore in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in police custody.
“To say, ‘Stick to sports,’ is the worst possible thing that you can feel and say,” Bisciotti said in the “Black Lives Matter” video. “If my players, both white and black, don’t speak out about this injustice to their communities, then they’re considered sellouts or hypocrites. If I don’t defend my players, then I’m the worst kind of hypocrite.”