Kansas City Chiefs recognize Juneteenth as holiday

The Kansas City Chiefs are closing offices on June 19 to recognize Juneteenth as holiday.

The Kansas City Chiefs will be closing the team’s offices at Arrowhead Stadium on Friday, June 19 in order to recognize Juneteenth as an official holiday.

The announcement by the Chiefs comes on the heels of a similar announcement by the National Football League announcing the same intention to recognize the holiday late last week. League offices will be closed on Juneteenth as well.

The Denver Broncos also announced their intentions to join with the Chiefs and league, and it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see other teams follow suit on Tuesday before Juneteenth arrives at week’s end.

Juneteenth commemorates the day when slavery in America officially ended. While the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln, was supposed to go into effect on January 1, 1863, it would be another two-and-a-half years until the last of America’s enslaved African-Americans would officially hear the news and receive their freedom. Those moments came on June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas—two months after Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union at Appomattox—when General Gordon Granger would make the announcement that “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

Goodell’s goal, as noted in the NFL’s statement, is to use the day to “reflect on our past, but more importantly, consider how each one of us can continue to show up and band together to work toward a better future.”

Forty-seven of the 50 states already observe Juneteenth to one degree or another, and the conversation to make it a national holiday is growing louder than ever. You can read more about the history of Juneteenth here.