The most recent federal holiday, National Independence Day on June 16, celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. But at the state level, governments vary greatly and decide to commemorate it as a holiday, a day of celebration or anything in between.
This year, at least 28 states and the District of Columbia will legally recognize June 19 as a holiday — state government offices are closed and state workers have a paid day off — according to Pew Research Center research of the state’s human resources websites. State law and newspaper articles. Connecticut, Minnesota, Nevada and Tennessee have declared June 16 a state holiday starting this year.
The nineteenth of June is the most recent federal holiday in the United States and the one celebrated from state to state. The Pew Research Center looked at how each state commemorates the day.
We focus on states that practice June 16 as an official holiday, which means state offices are closed and state workers have a paid day off. Our main resources for this research were government administrative, labor corps, and human resources websites, of which the most demonstrate lists of official holidays. We supplemented those lists with an investigation of reports on local celebrations on June 19 and, where appropriate, state legislation.
The New Mexico legislature added June 19 as an official holiday in 2006, observed on the third Saturday in June; It has become a paid holiday for state staff for the first time in 2022. In Illinois, state staff only receive paid leave on June 16 if it falls on a weekday. The governors of Alabama and West Virginia legally have June 16 as a holiday for state personnel this year, last year and 2021. Each state’s legislature will have to pass a law to make it a permanent official holiday. Proclamations by governors shall be issued annually in the absence of standing legislation.
In most of those states, Juneteenth is designated as a permanent holiday and is commemorated annually. In Alabama and West Virginia, Juneteenth was legal as a holiday this year through a governor’s proclamation; The holiday can be permanent in those states if their legislatures approve spending to do so.
In addition to D. C. and states where Juneteenth is an official holiday, other states grant a day off to some government employees, but have declared Juneteenth a state holiday.
Starting this year, California state workers can take Juneteenth instead of a non-public vacation. In Pennsylvania, the day is designated as an “official annual observance” and a paid day off for state workers under the governor’s jurisdiction. And in North Carolina, some state workers could take floating vacations on a day of “cultural, religious or non-public significance,” Juneteenth added.
Juneteenth is a mixture of the words June and nineteen. It commemorates the day more than two months after the end of the Civil War, and more than two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, when enslaved black Americans in Galveston, Texas, were informed of their freedom.
This is one of 11 official federal holidays, or 12 for federal staff in the District of Columbia and the presidential inauguration years of surrounding spaces, meaning federal staff have a paid day off and no mail delivery. Most federal offices are closed during the federal holidays, as are the major banks and bond markets that trade U. S. government debt. U. S. Stock markets sometimes remain open, as do major stores and other businesses, though these vary during federal holidays.
Most states where Juneteenth is a holiday added it to their calendars in 2020 or later. The exception is Texas, where the holiday was born and is also known as Emancipation Day. Juneteenth has been celebrated locally in Texas since the 1860s and has become an official day. Holidays there in 1980.
Public awareness of Juneteenth rose in 2020 amid national protests following the police killings of several black Americans, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. President Joe Biden signed the law declaring June 19 a federal holiday in June 2021.
At some point, each state passed a solution that establishes at least June 19 as a day of celebration, even those that don’t count June 19 as an official holiday. A celebration is a day of awareness that is not accompanied by a day off.
In fact, with the exception of Texas, each and every state that recently recognized June 19 as a holiday commemorated it as a day of observance years before it became an official holiday. Florida, Oklahoma and Minnesota were the first states outside the gates of Texas to commemorate June 19 as a birthday holiday in the 1990s. New Mexico has identified June 19 as a holiday since 2006, observed on the third Saturday in June; It has become a paid holiday for state staff for the first time in 2022.
South Dakota, North Dakota and Hawaii were the most recent states to officially recognize June 19 as a vital date. The day was only observed in South Dakota in 2020, when the governor proclaimed it a national holiday. In Hawaii and North Dakota, June 16 has been a birthday holiday since 2022, but it’s not considered a holiday.
June 16 also becomes a holiday in major American cities. Last year, cities including New York, Los Angeles and Phoenix declared the official paid holiday for city staff. In addition to June 16, the District of Columbia celebrates Emancipation Day on April 16. in honor of the day Lincoln freed slaves living in D. C. , nearly nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation.
Note: This is an update to an article published on June 17, 2022.
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