CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns announced Wednesday they will recognize Juneteenth as a paid holiday Friday, closing the team’s offices, a team spokesperson confirmed to News 5.
The team joins the Cleveland Cavaliers who announced they too would observe Juneteenth as a paid holiday.
Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, is an American holiday commemorating June 19, 1865—the date in which Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and announced that the Civil War had ended and all those still enslaved were free.
Although the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed two years before Granger made the announcement in Texas, the state was still heavily involved in slavery as Union troops were minimal in the area, making enforcement of the order to free all slaves difficult.
Camryn Justice contributed to this report.
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