By ROB MAADDI
AP Pro Football Writer
The NFL plans to recognize Juneteenth as a league holiday.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made the announcement to league employees on Friday in an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press.
Juneteenth is considered the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. It was originally celebrated on June 19, the day that Union soldiers in 1865 told enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, that the Civil War had ended and they were free.