Virginia governor to propose Juneteenth as state holiday
Source: AP
By ALAN SUDERMAN and DENISE LAVOIE
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday that hes making Juneteenth a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. an official holiday in a state that was once home to the capital of the Confederacy.
Juneteenth, which is also called Emancipation Day and Freedom Day, is celebrated annually on June 19. Texas first made it a state holiday in 1980. The holiday would be a paid day off for all state employees. Northam said he thinks Virginia would be only the second state to do so.
Its time we elevate this, Northam said of the June 19 commemoration. Not just a celebration by and for some Virginians but one acknowledged and celebrated by all of us.
The Democratic governor is giving every executive branch employee this Friday off as a paid holiday and will work with the legislature later this year to pass a law codifying Juneteenth as a permanent state holiday. The legislation is likely to pass the Democratic-controlled legislature with little trouble.
In this June 4, 2020 file photo Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam speaks during a news conference in Richmond, Va. Northam announced Tuesday, June 16, 2020 that he's making Juneteenth _ a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. _ an official holiday in a state that was once home to the capital of the Confederacy. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, file)
Read more: https://apnews.com/219da234c8bbfbd07c49b07154af22ee
efhmc
(14,731 posts)Hip2bSquare
(291 posts)As a black woman this is truly a sweet heart warming suggestion. I really hope they work on making Election Day a national holiday. I would cheer for days if that happened in my lifetime.
Marcuse
(7,492 posts)It took from April to June for word to reach the enslaved people in Texas. Someone should cover this song in a cheerful, optimistic upbeat.
underpants
(182,843 posts)Marcuse
(7,492 posts)[link:https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/what-is-juneteenth/|
The Emancipation Proclamation was and remains great PR but had little direct impact on enslaved persons. Slavers marched more than 150,000 African Americans west to Texas to stay ahead of the US Army. It was Lees surrender in April, 1865 that publicized and enabled emancipation and even then
The First Juneteenth
The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere. General Orders, Number 3; Headquarters District of Texas, Galveston, June 19, 1865
When Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued the above order, he had no idea that, in establishing the Union Armys authority over the people of Texas, he was also establishing the basis for a holiday, Juneteenth (June plus nineteenth), today the most popular annual celebration of emancipation from slavery in the United States. After all, by the time Granger assumed command of the Department of Texas, the Confederate capital in Richmond had fallen; the Executive to whom he referred, President Lincoln, was dead; and the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was well on its way to ratification.