CNN Business | Nike joins the companies making Juneteenth an annual paid holiday

New York (CNN Business) – Nike is adding June 19, a holiday called Juneteenth, to its list of official, paid company holidays.

The sportswear giant joins a growing number of companies that announced this week they are making Juneteenth, the oldest known US celebration of the end of slavery, an annual company holiday. Twitter (TWTR), Square (SQ) and Vox Media also plan to do the same.

Nike (NKE) CEO John Donahoe made the announcement in a letter to employees Thursday, along with several other actions the company plans to take in light of nationwide demonstrations calling for racial justice.

The announcements came as President Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to return to the campaign trail on June 19. After intense criticism, he announced in a Friday night tweet that the rally would be rescheduled to June 20 “out of respect for this holiday.”  —more—