Juneteenth should be national holiday, says Taylor Swift as she gives her employees day off

Juneteenth marks end of slavery in US

Taylor Swift calls for Juneteenth to be made national holiday (Getty)

Taylor Swift has expressed her support for making Juneteenth a national holiday, while announcing her dedication to learning more about the history of the day.

On Friday, the Love Story singer acknowledged the holiday, which marks the day that slavery was ended in America, on her Twitter and Instagram, where she shared a video from The Root explaining the significance of the day.

To mark the holiday, Swift said that she had given her employees the day off “in honour of Freedom Day from now on, and to continue to educate myself on the history that brought us to this present moment.”

“Happy Juneteenth!” the 30-year-old wrote. “I want to thank @the.root and @thedanielleyoung for allowing me to post this video about the significance of today, June 19th, and why it should be celebrated as a national holiday.

“For my family, everything that has transpired recently gives us an opportunity to reflect, listen, and reprogram any part of our lives that hasn’t been loudly and ferociously anti-racist, and to never let privilege lie dormant when it could be used to stand up for what’s right,” Swift continued.

Juneteenth honours the day in 1865 that Union Major General Gordon Granger led troops into Galveston, Texas, and announced that the Civil War had ended and that all slaves were now free - two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

As protests against racism in the US continue on behalf of the killing of George Floyd, many advocates are calling for Juneteenth to become a national holiday.

On Friday, a group of Senate Democrats announced they would be introducing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, which would make the day a federal holiday in the US.

The day, which has been celebrated as a public holiday in Texas since 1980, is currently recognised as a state holiday in 47 states.

This is not the first time the singer has used her platform to advocate for change. Earlier this month, Swift called on the Capitol Commission and the Tennessee Historical Commission to stop fighting for the protection of monuments dedicated to racist historical figures.

“As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things. Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest were DESPICABLE figures in our state history and should be treated as such,” Swift wrote. “We need to retroactively change the status of people who perpetuated hideous patterns of racism from ‘heroes’ to ‘villains.’ And villains don’t deserve statues.

“I’m asking the Capitol Commission and the Tennessee Historical Commission to please consider the implications of how hurtful it would be to continue fighting for these monuments.”