Off for Juneteenth? Here's an out-of-office message you can use to explain its significance.

• Business Insider is taking Juneteenth off on Wednesday, June 19.
• I wrote an out-of-office message to educate people and let them know I won't be checking email.

Business Insider is taking Juneteenth off. To prepare, I crafted an out-of-office message to let my contacts know I won't be checking email on Wednesday and educate them on the historic event.

Juneteenth recognizes the end of slavery in the US when the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas (then the most remote Confederate state) on June 19, 1865.

I took my usual OOO template and added a link that explains what Juneteenth is. Here's what I wrote:

Hi,

Thanks for your email! Business Insider has closed today to observe Juneteenth.

I encourage you to read the linked article on the holiday if you want to know why this decision was made and why it's so important to the company and its staff.

I'll be sure to respond to your message when I'm back in the office on Thursday, 6/20.

Big-name companies like Twitter and Nike declared Juneteenth a company holiday in 2020. Other organizations like Microsoft have designated it a "day of listening, learning, and engagement" and canceled meetings.

On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law to make Juneteenth a national holiday.