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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.”
