Juneteenth or Jefferson Davis? Ala. state workers may have to choose.

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rfenst
Herf-A-Holic Topic Starter

2 years ago

WAPO

Alabama state Rep. Juandalynn Givan and other Black lawmakers have lobbied for years to have the state recognize the Juneteenth holiday.

“It’s an acknowledgment that history happened, and I think we need to do whatever we can to make sure our history is not lost,” Givan (D) said.

This year, lawmakers may have reached a compromise.

Under the bill H.B. 4, Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19, would become a state holiday. But state employees would be able to choose between recognizing Juneteenth or the birthday of the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, on June 3.

Alabama already celebrates the birthday of Davis, who was captured by Union soldiers fleeing Virginia in the waning days of the Civil War, as a state holiday. (Statues of Davis have been removed in Richmond and New Orleans in recent years.)

“It was a compromise. Did we like it? No. But can we live with it? Yes. Are we hopeful for the future? Absolutely,” said Givan, who sponsored the bill.

The Alabama House of Representatives passed the bill April 11 by a margin of 83-0, with 58 Republicans and 25 Democrats voting in favor of the bill. Ten lawmakers abstained. The bill still must be voted on by the state Senate, where it hasn’t been introduced.

Juneteenth has been celebrated for more than 100 years, marking the day, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, that Union troops arrived in Galveston, Tex., and announced that more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in the state were free.

It began garnering wider recognition in the aftermath of the social justice protests of 2020 and became a federal holiday in 2021. At least 28 states and the District of Columbia also recognize Juneteenth as a public holiday, giving state workers a paid day off, according to the Pew Research Center.

Since Juneteenth became a federal holiday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) has issued a proclamation marking the day as a public holiday. But it is not permanent.

Ivey didn’t respond to a request for comment on the legislation.

“I look at it as a Republican holiday because the Emancipation was presented by Abraham Lincoln, who was a Republican,” state Rep. Rick Rehm (R) said during the debate on the legislation, referencing Juneteenth. “It’s a very valid, worthy holiday, and I wanted to give my support for that.”

Allowing employees to choose between two holidays would keep the number of state holidays celebrated to 13, Rehm told WTVY.

Rehm and the Alabama Republican Party didn’t respond to a request for comment.

But some Black lawmakers and the Tuscaloosa NAACP have raised objections to the Alabama bill.

“The compromise that it’s asking me to make is just difficult,” said state Rep. Chris England (D), who abstained from a vote. “Black Americans often have to accept really big compromises to make really small progress.”

Lawmakers have also tried unsuccessfully over the years to get rid of other state holidays commemorating the Confederacy, which established Montgomery, Ala., as its first capital in 1861.

Alabama celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on the same day, Jan. 15. It celebrates Confederate Memorial Day on April 22.

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But similar efforts have been more successful in other parts of the country. In 2022, Louisiana removed Robert E. Lee Day and Confederate Memorial Day from its list of state holidays. Georgia did the same in 2015.

Alabama’s Juneteenth compromise bill is a setback to the larger effort to promote the holiday, said Lisa Young, president of the Tuscaloosa County branch of the NAACP.

“Things are always politically divided here in Alabama. … However, for myself, I would’ve wanted all or nothing,” Young said. “Not treating Juneteenth the way all other holidays are treated is a slap in the face to African Americans.”

Young said she is worried that if the legislation moves forward, it could be used to overturn measures adopted in some Alabama cities, like Tuscaloosa and Northport, to recognize the holiday.

The compromise bill is overly conciliatory to those who believe in a “lost cause” narrative, which promotes a pro-Confederate memory of the Civil War, said Hilary Green, professor of Africana studies at Davidson College.

Green added, “The past is never the past, and it’s still with us. Until we reckon with that tension, we will still have legislation like this.”

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RayR
Herf-A-Holic

2 years ago

Historically ignorant jokers on the LEFT and historically ignorant jokers on the RIGHT deciding what the past was about.

rfenst
Herf-A-Holic Topic Starter

2 years ago

Historically ignorant jokers on the LEFT and historically ignorant jokers on the RIGHT deciding what the past was about.

RayR wrote:

You mean they compromised?
Celebrating Jefferson Davis' birthday by holiday kind of seems anti-intuitive.

Edited by user 2 years ago | Reason: Not specified

DrMaddVibe
Herf-A-Holic

2 years ago

**** Alabama.

At least it's not Florida! Dodged that one!

Cue the Lynyrd Skynyrd "Sweet Home Alabama" song...:-"

Edited by user 2 years ago | Reason: Not specified

rfenst
Herf-A-Holic Topic Starter

2 years ago

**** Alabama.

At least it's not Florida! Dodged that one!

Cue the Lynyrd Skynyrd "Sweet Home Alabama" song...:-"

DrMaddVibe wrote:

I LOVES THAT SONG and have it on my Carplay.

RayR
Herf-A-Holic

2 years ago

You mean they compromised?
Celebrating Jefferson Davis' birthday by holiday kind of seems anti-intuitive.

rfenst wrote:

"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, becomes that between employer and hired labor. The Freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere."

The order had no constitutional legal authority behind it, just like Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation which the order was based on had no constitutional legal authority to dictate where slaves would be free and not free. (It didn't proclaim any slave to be free in Union-controlled states) It was all war propaganda, which they called "war measures". Still, to this day, some people eat up propaganda and think it is true and want to have their favorite propaganda officially celebrated with the blessing of the government.

And then you have this dumb state Rep. Rick Rehm (R) who said, “I look at it as a Republican holiday because the Emancipation was presented by Abraham Lincoln, who was a Republican,” “It’s a very valid, worthy holiday, and I wanted to give my support for that.”
He's probably pandering or never read the Emancipation Proclamation or didn't fully grasp the words.

jeebling
Herf-A-Holic

2 years ago

I was born and raised in Texas and came back home when I retired from the USN. My birthday is 19 June or…JUNETEENTH as I rememberthat term from my earliest days. Of course this doesn’t make me an expert. But you can understand that I typically pay attention to news stories and what I was told in school and what I read in the encyclopedia. I must say, the thing that always struck me as anti-American was the fact that the proclamation did not end slavery in union states or confederate states that had come under union control. I was NOT taught that in school and I had never heard it on the television programs celebrating Juneteenth. I figured it out by looking in the encyclopedia. I could wallow in this topic a bit but , if you’re reading this I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you can figure out that some whitewashing has occurred here. Celebrate Juneteenth as a national holiday? Heck yes. It is a celebration of freedom. But in school and in the media I wish they could get the history explicated properly. In my opinion it is a huge omission not to point out the thorny details of this issue.
Also, in my opinion, any talk of it being a slap in African American’s faces when the subject of slavery is downplayed is hogwash. Downplaying slavery is a slap in the face of all freedom loving Americans and people throughout the world.

HockeyDad
Herf-A-Holic

2 years ago

**** Alabama.

At least it's not Florida! Dodged that one!

Cue the Lynyrd Skynyrd "Sweet Home Alabama" song...:-"

DrMaddVibe wrote:

Cancel both holidays and get them government works back to working.

HockeyDad
Herf-A-Holic

2 years ago

No, it's the general level of ignorance on both sides.

The left (and some on the RIGHT) doesn't want anything to do with the history of the Confederacy celebrated...you know because of SLAVERRRY, even though SLAVERRRY existed in Union controlled states of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri during the war and didn't legally end until after the war on December 6, 1865 when the 13th Amendment was ratified.
But they want to celebrate what happened in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 when Major General Gordon Granger issued
GENERAL ORDERS, NUMBER 3:

The order had no constitutional legal authority behind it, just like Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation which the order was based on had no constitutional legal authority to dictate where slaves would be free and not free. (It didn't proclaim any slave to be free in Union-controlled states) It was all war propaganda, which they called "war measures". Still, to this day, some people eat up propaganda and think it is true and want to have their favorite propaganda officially celebrated with the blessing of the government.

And then you have this dumb state Rep. Rick Rehm (R) who said, “I look at it as a Republican holiday because the Emancipation was presented by Abraham Lincoln, who was a Republican,” “It’s a very valid, worthy holiday, and I wanted to give my support for that.”
He's probably pandering or never read the Emancipation Proclamation or didn't fully grasp the words.

RayR wrote:

Major General Gordon Granger basically issued a Tweet!

DrMaddVibe
Herf-A-Holic

2 years ago

#10

Cancel both holidays and get them government works back to working.

HockeyDad wrote:

Cue the "Back On The Chain Gang" song....:-"

RayR
Herf-A-Holic

2 years ago

#11

What about this mean tweet issued by A. B. Long, Capt., & Provost Marshall, Commanding Post in New Iberia, La., April 24, 1863?

The generally received impression, that the slaves of this Parish, are free, by force of the presence of the Union army, is erroneous.

This Parish, (St. Martin) is excepted by name, in the Emancipation Proclamation, of President Lincoln, issued at Washington, D. C., January 1, 1863.

No farther interference, with the institution of slavery will be allowed by the Army Authorities, than
may necessarily result from the police regulations.

United States Army Officers, are forbidden, by law of Congress, to use force in the restoration of
slaves to masters.

If slaves flee from their masters, they must work on Government works, receiving therefor, full
rations, for full day's work.

If slaves voluntarily return to their masters, they will not be molested.

If masters use force, in abducting run-away slaves, the masters will be arrested.

If masters inhumanly punish or whip their slaves, they must be arrested.

No punishment of slaves, will be permitted. except such as are practiced in the Army.

A. B. LONG, Capt., & Provost Marshal, Commanding Post.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.0240320a/?sp=1&st=image

RobertHively
Herf-A-Holic

2 years ago

#12

Sometimes you just got to roll with it...

Here's how you pick which day if you're an Alabama state employee:

About May 27th or 28th, check the 10 day weather forecast. Call the TVA and ask about the current fishing conditions on Pickwick Lake. What's the lake level? Is the water clear? What is the water temp? Are the Smallmouth bass post spawn?

After compiling all these bits of information then you can make an informed decision. If you think it's good to go, then it's Jefferson Davis day for some post spawn bass action.

If all the factors don't constitute a good day of fishing on June 3rd, then just wait until Juneteenth, by that time you are guaranteed to be into the summertime bite.

jeebling
Herf-A-Holic

2 years ago

#13

RobertHively wrote:

😆 much truth in jest, Robert 🥴

Speyside2
Herf-A-Holic

2 years ago

#14

I think the only state or federal holidays should be Memorial day, the 4th of July, and veterans day. I know many would add Christmas to this list of 3. But then what about every other religion within our country?

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