Since three guys started an Oklahoma City tech company in 2009, Clevyr has been guided by honesty, transparency, and commitment to community – from our employees and clients to the local tech scene, our city, and beyond. We recognize that we’re a small part of a larger history that deserves this pause.
For us, today is not just a day off. Juneteenth is both a celebration of freedom and a quiet reminder of how long justice can take to arrive. On one side, it’s a celebration of the abolition of slavery, that the news of freedom was carried far and wide, but on the other, it’s ripe for reflection, learning, and honoring a story that reshaped our country and continues to shape our lives.
Juneteenth specifically marks the day in 1865 when, in Galveston, Texas, the last enslaved people in the U.S. were finally told they were free—more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It's a moment that’s both joyful and sobering: a celebration of freedom, but also a reminder of how long justice can take to arrive. Even then, Juneteenth marked a beginning, rather than an end.
It was another five years before the Fifteenth Amendment (theoretically) prohibited denying the right to vote based on race. (February 3, 1870)
It was another forty-five years before the NAACP was established. (February 12, 1909)
It was a hundred years before President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act that fully enfranchised African American voters. (August 7, 1965)
Over that same hundred years, America saw the rise of communities like Oklahoma City’s Deep Deuce and Tulsa’s Greenwood. The Harlem Renaissance produced works of art and literature that are as deeply woven into our American tapestry as any. New Orleans jazz paved the way for rock and roll. Black orators and statesmen gave us words to live by, and to dream by. We also saw the rise of Jim Crow, redlining and sundown towns, the Tulsa Race Massacre. We saw less overt means, like “urban renewal” and the strategic construction of interstate highways used to disrupt and scatter historically black neighborhoods and enclaves.
Since 1965, though, we’ve seen real progress:
Despite hardships inflicted on and carried by a whole people, the black community remains resilient, connected, motivated, and upwardly mobile.
What does all of that have to do with Clevyr?
As a company rooted in technology, we know our tools shape the future—but our values shape how we build it. Honoring Juneteenth is one small way we stay accountable to that truth. We choose to close our doors today because we believe honoring Juneteenth means more than a Slack message. It means slowing down, acknowledging history, and making space for a better future.
Want to learn more about African American history and the legacy of Juneteenth? Here are a few places to start: