Juneteenth a Federal holiday? What do you think?

[Anonymous]

Should have happened in the 1800s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My law firm had already declared it a firm holiday so I knew I was getting Friday off. I'm personally always down for another day off from work, and if this helps POC feel better, then I'm all for that. They've been through hell.

Feel better? We already have MLK Day, February Black history month, and Emancipation Day in DC. Three is not enough, but four is just right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would prefer Emancipation Day as the holiday. Juneteenth is just a sad reminder that the racism marched on and should be celebrated in Texas.

At first I thought that Emancipation Day ought to be the day to commemorate, but the Emancipation Proclamation took effect January 1, and the 13th amendment took effect December 6 (or December 18 depending, since that's how long it took for the federal government to receive notice from the state legislatures). Neither are good dates for a holiday at this point.

And yeah, Juneteenth was primarily an east Texas tradition that spread over time to other areas of the South, and some northern cities due to the Great Migration. But Juneteenth has the advantage of having developed organically, and that's better for a holiday's broad acceptance than simply declaring a date to be when something gets celebrated simply because it's more accurate.

It'll be annoying when your kid asks if June 19th was the day that the slaves were freed, and you'll have to say, "well, no, it was the date some slaves in Texas were freed, because blah blah Emancipation Proclamation, blah blah one last cotton crop, blah blah 13th amendment..." But at this point we're used to having the "Columbus didn't actually discover America" and the "Jesus wasn't actually born in December" conversations (or for a deep cut the "Labor Day isn't May 1 because Grover Cleveland blah blah national guard blah blah" convo).

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Just say June 19th was the day that all the slaves were finally free.

Except it wasn't. The Emancipation Proclamation (1863) only applied to slaves in Confederate states, and slaves were only freed in practical effect when Union forces liberated an area. Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri remained in the Union and remained slave states (and West Virginia was admitted to the Union in 1863 as a slave state as well). West Virginia, Maryland, and Missouri abolished slavery in the latter years of the war (1864 and early 1865), but Kentucky and Delaware both rejected the attempts to end slavery, and thus the slaves in those states were not freed until the passage of the 13th Amendment in December 1865. That's 40-50,000 slaves alone, as well as a handful of slaves in New Jersey, which took a gradual approach to emancipation but still had some who had been grandfathered in.

Juneteenth = Great holiday. Nothing against it. But June 19, 1865 was not the date when the last slaves were freed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would prefer Emancipation Day as the holiday. Juneteenth is just a sad reminder that the racism marched on and should be celebrated in Texas.

At first I thought that Emancipation Day ought to be the day to commemorate, but the Emancipation Proclamation took effect January 1, and the 13th amendment took effect December 6 (or December 18 depending, since that's how long it took for the federal government to receive notice from the state legislatures). Neither are good dates for a holiday at this point.

And yeah, Juneteenth was primarily an east Texas tradition that spread over time to other areas of the South, and some northern cities due to the Great Migration. But Juneteenth has the advantage of having developed organically, and that's better for a holiday's broad acceptance than simply declaring a date to be when something gets celebrated simply because it's more accurate.

It'll be annoying when your kid asks if June 19th was the day that the slaves were freed, and you'll have to say, "well, no, it was the date some slaves in Texas were freed, because blah blah Emancipation Proclamation, blah blah one last cotton crop, blah blah 13th amendment..." But at this point we're used to having the "Columbus didn't actually discover America" and the "Jesus wasn't actually born in December" conversations (or for a deep cut the "Labor Day isn't May 1 because Grover Cleveland blah blah national guard blah blah" convo).

.
Just say June 19th was the day that all the slaves were finally free.

Except it wasn't. The Emancipation Proclamation (1863) only applied to slaves in Confederate states, and slaves were only freed in practical effect when Union forces liberated an area. Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri remained in the Union and remained slave states (and West Virginia was admitted to the Union in 1863 as a slave state as well). West Virginia, Maryland, and Missouri abolished slavery in the latter years of the war (1864 and early 1865), but Kentucky and Delaware both rejected the attempts to end slavery, and thus the slaves in those states were not freed until the passage of the 13th Amendment in December 1865. That's 40-50,000 slaves alone, as well as a handful of slaves in New Jersey, which took a gradual approach to emancipation but still had some who had been grandfathered in.

Juneteenth = Great holiday. Nothing against it. But June 19, 1865 was not the date when the last slaves were freed.

Oops!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would like it better if it wasn’t called Juneteenth. June 19th sounds good. Can we just combine it with MLK day? We are heading toward a lot of holidays. Besides the usual days, our school system takes off Christian, Jewish and Muslim holidays. I think we should cut Presidents’ Day or Columbia Day or Easter Monday.

The fact that Easter Monday is a (state) holiday is preposterous. Its purpose is so that people can travel to celebrate a religious holiday. Absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what about us with AWS days tomorrow?

You deal with it and get your day off as always. It amazes me how stingy federal employees are about time worked. Those of us in the private sector aren’t nickel and diming our way through the work week. If we have to work extra hours, we deal with it. I don’t come in at 7:58 and take exactly 30 minutes for lunch and leave at exactly 3:58 or leave at 3:01 on days we get 59 minutes like my Fed colleagues do. Y’all are lazy and entitled. Suck it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My law firm had already declared it a firm holiday so I knew I was getting Friday off. I'm personally always down for another day off from work, and if this helps POC feel better, then I'm all for that. They've been through hell.

Feel better? We already have MLK Day, February Black history month, and Emancipation Day in DC. Three is not enough, but four is just right?

Um...there are not black holidays and white holidays. There are federal holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what about us with AWS days tomorrow?

You deal with it and get your day off as always. It amazes me how stingy federal employees are about time worked. Those of us in the private sector aren’t nickel and diming our way through the work week. If we have to work extra hours, we deal with it. I don’t come in at 7:58 and take exactly 30 minutes for lunch and leave at exactly 3:58 or leave at 3:01 on days we get 59 minutes like my Fed colleagues do. Y’all are lazy and entitled. Suck it up.

Neither do most Feds...

[Anonymous]

As long as schools aren't closed for the day, I don't care. If it's summer, even better as it won't affect us at all.

[Anonymous]

I don't see the logic in making Juneteenth a holiday since it was only about freeing slaves in Texas. I think they should honor the anniversary of the 13th amendment and that should be a federal holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the logic in making Juneteenth a holiday since it was only about freeing slaves in Texas. I think they should honor the anniversary of the 13th amendment and that should be a federal holiday.

Why not both?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the logic in making Juneteenth a holiday since it was only about freeing slaves in Texas. I think they should honor the anniversary of the 13th amendment and that should be a federal holiday.

Why not both?

I have no objection, but still don't see how a state holiday should be a federal holiday. It's only about Texas.

[Anonymous]

Anyone cheering an "extra federal holiday", keep in mind a few years from now they'll get rid of any holiday having to do with founding fathers, calling it white supremacy, so we will in fact have fewer federal holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the logic in making Juneteenth a holiday since it was only about freeing slaves in Texas. I think they should honor the anniversary of the 13th amendment and that should be a federal holiday.

Why not both?

Because the 13th Amendment took effect on December 18, and that's an impractical date to have a federal holiday.

I don't care that Juneteenth's origin is specific to Texas. If they're going to add a holiday to the calendar they could do a lot worse than June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone cheering an "extra federal holiday", keep in mind a few years from now they'll get rid of any holiday having to do with founding fathers, calling it white supremacy, so we will in fact have fewer federal holidays.

You mean presidents day? What others are there? I think Columbus Day will go at some point which is ok.