Hi, I'm Dan Pramak, and welcome to Axios Recap, presented by Facebook. Today's Friday, June 19th.

Coronavirus cases are rising, prospects of a major league baseball season are falling,

and we're focused on Juneteenth, Corporate America Edition. As you're likely aware, people today

are celebrating Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates

the emancipation of Black Americans from the bonds of slavery. And if somehow you hadn't heard

of Juneteenth before today, then it's likely you heard about it from your employer, or maybe

from your favorite brands. Nike, for example, has closed all of its retail stores and offices.

Best Buy is letting employees take today as a paid volunteering day. U.S. Bank is closing all of its branches early, and

Twitter, Square, Target, Spotify, and more have all made it a corporate holiday. In case you

don't work for one of those companies or shop with them, then you are sure to see Juneteenth messages

all over

corporate social media accounts. What you won't see, though, is many black people in top

positions at those companies. There are only four black CEOs in the Fortune 500 right now,

and it doesn't get much better elsewhere in the C-suite, despite almost all of those companies

talking and talking about how they need to improve their racial diversity.

Here's BET founder Robert Johnson, speaking earlier today at an Axios Live virtual event,

when asked if his success is a counter argument to the need to do more and spend more in addressing racial disparities.

I am one in 40 million.

Or you can say you can add all the other people who've made that kind of

wealth and say they're five and 40 million. But you should ask yourself, what would have

happened if there were no slaves, if African Americans were treated with equal opportunity

after slavery? Maybe there would be 500, 600, Robert Johnson. All of this brings us to an old idea that's just beginning to get mainstreamed.

...