Why This Beauty Brand Will Celebrate Juneteenth Instead of July 4

In the midst of the antiracism protests that have popped up in major cities around the world, many brands are beginning to take a look within and reconsidering how they can uplift the Black community outside of sharing Instagram posts and one-time donations. Beauty Bakerie is one of them.

The Black-owned beauty brand explained in an Instagram post on June 9 that, "effective immediately," it will no longer recognise July 4 as a national holiday, as it will celebrate Juneteenth instead.

"It's important we all do what we can do within our scope and our reach to dismantle systems put in place that ignore the value of any life," the photo's caption reads. "We will recognise the day we were ALL free. We have to be bold about it. It can't be tolerated on ANY level."

For the uninitiated, Juneteenth — also known as Freedom Day — is a holiday that was created to commemorate the end of slavery in the US. A portmanteau of "June" and "19th," it normally falls on June 19, which is the day that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX, in 1865 with news that all slaves were free. The post was shared around the same time that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the company, along with Square, had officially made Juneteenth a company holiday at its US headquarters.

Currently, only 47 states in the US recognise Juneteenth as a national holiday; the ones that don't are Hawaii, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Beauty Bakerie has yet to comment on how the company plans to celebrate the holiday.