Orange County makes Juneteenth a holiday to remember emancipation of enslaved people
Orange County employees will take June 19 off, starting next year, to celebrate the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to make June 19, or Juneteenth, the county’s 12th paid holiday. The change is expected to cost taxpayers roughly $61,000 in salaries and benefits, county staff reported.
Commissioner Renee Price, the board’s lone Black member, proposed the change in July.
“This really is to acknowledge that Juneteenth really is a day of freedom for African Americans,” Price said. “For years, we’d go along with July Fourth with other folks having that as a major holiday, but it really was not a freedom day for people of color and African descent.”
The town boards in Hillsborough and Carrboro, the Raleigh City Council and the Wake County Board of Commissioners approved the paid holiday earlier this summer.
The Chapel Hill Town Council, the Durham County Board of Commissioners and the Durham City Council are expected to consider the move later this year, elected officials have said.
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. Hawaii, North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states that do not recognize Juneteenth.
But after Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd, there has been a new urgency to officially recognize the holiday. U.S. Sens. Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and others sponsored a bill this summer that would make Juneteenth a national holiday. Local governments also have encouraged the state to make the day an official state holiday.
This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 5:50 AM.
