Juneteenth

day off when she saw big tech companies doing it, and after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared it a holiday for state employees. Several of her employees are spending the day volunteering for the Juneteenth Freedom Phonebank, an initiative encouraging Census participation.

“I thought to myself, ‘How did I not know about this all these years?’” said Rosen, 64, who is white. “I started wondering, is this another example of how a national holiday is formed?”

The question is whether the fervor of the moment will last and where it will ultimately lead.

While the list has grown quickly, only a small minority of U.S. companies are observing Juneteenth, and not all have committed to do so beyond this year.

“Right now, everyone is feeling really strongly about this but is this something they think they are going to maintain longer term?” said Carolina Valencia,

a director in research firm Gartner’s human resource practice.

“Is this going to temporarily raise awareness or is the awareness going to last? It’s hard to know.”

Declaring the date a federal holiday would add considerable momentum, and there is growing support for the idea. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, introduced legislation Thursday to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, introduced a similar bill in the House.

Texas was the first state to make it a holiday in 1980. All but three states — Hawaii, South Dakota and North Dakota — now recognize the day in some way.

Most private companies take their cues from the federal government when drawing up their holiday calendars, but they are under no legal obligation to offer any particular day off, Valencia said.

It can take a long time for a holiday to become widely observed even after federal or state designations.

According to a 2017 survey by the Society of Human Resources Management, just 39% of private employers offer the day off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which Congress designated as federal holiday in 1983 after 15 years of lobbying.

In contrast, 93% of employers close on Independence day, with similar rates for Labor Day, Christmas Day and Thanksgiving.

It’s a notable shift, however, that many companies are declaring Juneteenth a holiday before the federal government does, said Heide Gardner, chief diversity and inclusion officer at advertising and marketing firm Interpublic Group.

She said the trend is reflective of an era of growing employee activism pushing companies to take stands on social issues.

“It’s an interesting moment where companies are taking initiative where government or traditions might have fallen short,” said Gardner, whose company has also declared Juneteenth a paid holiday.

“We don’t have to wait for the government.”