Taylor Swift is celebrating Juneteenth in a big way.
Taking to social media, the "Lover" singer announced that she has given her employees the day off to observe the holiday, which commemorates General Gordon Granger arriving in Texas to announce to remaining enslaved African Americans that they were free. She also called for Juneteenth to be recognized as a national holiday.
"Personally, I've made the decision to give all of my employees June 19th off in honor of Freedom Day from now on, and to continue to educate myself on the history that brought us to this present moment," she shared alongside an educational video regarding the significance of the holiday.
Swift continued, "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."
Like the Grammy winner, other celebrities have spoken up about Juneteenth, including Pharrell Williams, who recently attended a press conference in Virginia in which governor Ralph Northam announced he will propose legislation to make Juneteenth a paid state holiday.
"I just think it's high time that, if we're going to think about what independence and what freedom really looks like, ours was never really acknowledged," he said during his visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live. "I mean, yeah, there's 47 states that observe it, but that's not a paid holiday. We deserve a paid holiday."
The "Happy" singer added, "But this is serious because this is for not only me, but this is for, like, my ancestors that absolutely came through on the hull of a ship in Virginia, you know, 400 years ago—over 401 years ago. So, for me, this was incredibly symbolic and it's necessary."
In recent weeks, Swift has been using her platform to speak out on matters involving racial justice. On June 13, she took to Instagram urging Tennessee officials to remove statues of "racist" historical figures.
"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," she wrote. "When you fight to honor racists, you show black Tennesseans and all of their allies where you stand, and you continue this cycle of hurt. You can't change history, but you can change this."