Juneteenth is now an official federal holiday

[neophyte]

Surprisingly to me, the City of Florence, South Carolina had already declared Juneteenth a city holiday some time ago. My contact at the WWTP there told me she was off today (Friday) because of the holiday.

[Lemon Drop]

neophyte wrote:
Surprisingly to me, the City of Florence, South Carolina had already declared Juneteenth a city holiday some time ago. My contact at the WWTP there told me she was off today (Friday) because of the holiday.

Well they did so on May 10 of this year. Nearly all states including SC had recognized Juneteenth as a day of celebration but not a legal holiday. So the federal designation is huge.

https://www.wmbfnews.com/2021/05/10/flor...y-holiday/

I was very disappointed but not surprised to read what Rep Ralph Norman of SC said in voting against the holiday. He said "we already have an Independence Day " and we can't afford this one. Bleh.

[PeterB]

I'm guessing a number of states will do the same with it as they've done with MLK ... try to "combine" it with another holiday, e.g., "Martin Luther King's and Robert E. Lee's Birthdays"

[SteveG]

Jewish people have one like it. It's called Passover. Been going strong for over 3000 years. I'm all for it.

[NewtonMP2100]

.....June.....is bustin' out all over......all over the mead'r and the hill.....

[Ombligo]

A friend works for a company that has to staff every day regardless, so it did away with all holidays. Every employee gets a set number of personal days beyond vacation time. They can use those whenever desired. Only a certain number can be off on any given day, so days like Christmas are done on a seniority basis.

I wouldn't have a problem with that setup.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

p8712 wrote:

Having this become a national holiday though is very political. Would not have happened with previous guy. Like MLK jr day, not everyone will accept it.

Maybe AZ will finally recognize MLK day?

Nah.

It did:

After the MLK holiday vote failed in 1990, Arizona received a lot of criticism. Around the country conferences, conventions and other groups boycotted Arizona. The National Football League disqualified Phoenix as the host city for the 1993 Super Bowl game. The loss of the Super Bowl denied Phoenix a projected $200 million in revenue.

In November 1992, voters passed an Martin Luther King Civil Rights Day holiday. Arizona was the last state in the union to formally install an MLK holiday. (New Hampshire has a Civil Rights Day.) But Arizona was the only state to approve the MLK holiday by popular affirmation.

https://www.library.pima.gov/content/mar...n-arizona/