Washington state workers would have June 19th as a legal holiday under legislation proposed to commemorate Juneteenth, the day slaves in Texas learned the Civil War was over and they were free.
Representative Melanie Morgan, of Parkland, urged the House State Government and Tribal Relations Committee to pass the bill, which would also recognize February as Black History Month.
Although President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation technically declared all slaves in the Confederate States free in 1863, it wasn’t until more than a month after the war ended that word reached Texas, and the last slaves in Galveston found out on June 19th, 1865, or Juneteenth.
Should the measure pass the Legislature, Juneteenth would be Washington’s 11th legal state holiday.
A fiscal note on the potential cost of the extra state holiday is being prepared. (Spokesman Review)
