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The House on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to make Juneteenth a national federal holiday with a score of 415-14, and Democrats hope President Joe Biden will sign the measure into law by Saturday.
The June 19 holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States is already celebrated as a public or festive holiday in 47 states and the District of Columbia. When signed into law, it will become the country’s eleventh federal holiday.
The House bill’s sponsor, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, said it’s been a “long ride,” but we’re “here.”
“Juneteenth equals freedom and freedom is what America is all about!” I tweeted. Jackson Lee said she and Democratic leaders plan to send the legislation to the president’s office by June.
Before the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, called it an “exciting historic day,” and it was already too late.
The bill had strong bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, but one vote “no,” Rep. Matt Rosendale, a Mont Republican, said it would be called “the myrtle my ace.” This is an effort by left for a day of full cloth to celebrate identity politics As part of its larger effort to make critical race theory the dominant ideology for our country.”
Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, co-sponsor of the legislation, quoted Rosendael’s statement on Twitter as “eccentric.”
All 14 dissenting votes were from Republicans, including Representatives Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Paul Gosar and Andy Bigs of Arizona, Mo Brooks and Mike Rogers of Alabama, Thomas Massey of Kentucky, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Tom McClintock and Doug Lamalva from Alabama. California, Tom Tiffany from Wisconsin and two Texas congressmen, Ronnie Jackson and Chip Roy.
June 19th – officially called Independence Day 11 in the bill – is also known as Emancipation Day and Black Independence Day.
The holiday honors the end of slavery by commemorating the year 1865 in which General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and declared to enslaved African Americans that the Civil War was over and that they were free. Granger’s announcement came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
African Americans celebrated the anniversary in Texas the following year, and soon began to be celebrated in other states as well. It became a public holiday in Texas in 1980.
“Juneteenth honors the end of the years of suffering and brutality suffered by African Americans under slavery, the Native American sin, and celebrates the legacy of perseverance that has become the hallmark of the African American experience of the struggle for equality,” Jackson Lee said.
The Senate approved the measure unanimously Tuesday night. Republican Senator Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, blocked an earlier attempt to pass the law, citing the potential cost to taxpayers, but told NBC News earlier on Wednesday that “I recognize the truth.”
“I’m in favor of celebrating the emancipation of the slaves. I didn’t really understand why the only way to do that would be to give 2 million federal health care workers, which would cost $600 million a year, a day off. But obviously the rest of Congress wants to do that so I don’t get in the way “.
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