Quaker Oats to rebrand Aunt Jemima, PepsiCo offers plan to support racial equality, and HSBC, Hilton and AT&T announce layoffs

Editor’s note: This article is a re-run as part of our countdown of top stories from the past year.

Hello, communicators:

Though Amazon isn’t giving its workforce the day off on Friday for Juneteenth, it’s encouraging employees to spend the day learning and reflecting, CNBC reported.

In a memo to employees, the company’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, wrote:

This Friday, June 19, is Juneteenth, the oldest-known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S. I’m cancelling all of my meetings on Friday, and I encourage all of you to do the same if you can. We’re providing a range of online learning opportunities for employees throughout the day.

Amazon joins Twitter, Square, the National Football League, Google, Target, Nike, Facebook and more in either commemorating the day or declaring it a company holiday.

Here are today’s top stories:

The food company, which was purchased by PepsiCo in 2001, announced it’s changing the name and image of its Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup. The products brand were inspired by the minstrel song, “Old Aunt Jemima.”