Carrboro makes Juneteenth official holiday while other NC towns consider same idea
Carrboro town employees will have a ninth paid holiday next year to celebrate the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States.
The Carrboro Town Council unanimously voted Tuesday to set aside June 19, or Juneteenth, as a paid town holiday. They join other Triangle governments in adding the official holiday for their employees. The Wake County Board of Commissioners and the Raleigh City Council approved the paid holiday earlier this month. Hillsborough’s Town Board approved the holiday for town staff on June 29.
The Hillsborough and Carrboro boards, in their resolutions, also asked state and federal lawmakers to make the date an official state and federal holiday.
Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 — the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with the news that the Civil War had ended and slaves were free. The news arrived more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
The day is observed as a ceremonial holiday in 47 states, including North Carolina, and has been an official state holiday in Texas since 1980.
But after Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd, there has been a new urgency to recognizing the holiday on an official level.
Council member Barbara Foushee, who proposed Carrboro’s resolution, said the celebration is important because of the “justice that often has been delayed or denied” to Black people.”
“Today, especially recently, Black and brown people still experience racism every day at every level of this American life and also face violence at the hands of police,” Foushee said. “But I’m very hopeful, because there are millions of people marching, advocating, rallying and organizing, to finally, hopefully, put an end to all of that.
“I ask that we continue to stand together, continue the long march toward justice, not just on Juneteenth, but every day of our lives and also in our work as a council,” she said.
NC cities, counties discussing Juneteenth
The Orange County Board of Commissioners had a similar discussion Tuesday about making June 19 a paid day off for employees after Commissioner Renee Price proposed the holiday.
Chair Penny Rich said the board will take up the discussion at its first meeting in September.
The Chapel Hill Town Council, the Durham County Board of Commissioners and the Durham City Council also will talk about the idea later this year, elected officials have said.
“I expect that we will be adopting the Juneteenth holiday,” Durham Mayor Steve Schewel said in a text message Tuesday.
Staff writers Anna Johnson, Charlie Innis and Mark Schultz contributed to this story.
