Board of Trustees votes to recognize Friday, June 19, 2020, as an Employee Holiday
Acts of racism and injustice are too familiar and wholly unacceptable. In the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police and the Black Lives Matter protests that have followed, Illinois private and public companies are joining employers elsewhere in the nation in marking Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day or Freedom Day. At their June 18, 2020, meeting the CTPF Board of Trustees affirmed that CTPF would officially recognize Juneteenth, by closing the CTPF office on Friday, June 19, 2020, and giving employees a paid holiday.
The holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, the day Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce the end of the Civil War and slavery.
During the Trustees' meeting, President Jeffery Blackwell remarked, “We must vow to do better to address and dismantle racism and systemic inequality in all of our communities, our places of work, and in this world. This may be challenging and uncomfortable work but it is essential, and the brunt of it should not rest on the shoulders of our black and brown sisters and brothers. We must collaborate, educate, create, and stand for a more equitable and just society.