On June 17th, “Juneteenth” became the 11th federal holiday. With June 19th falling on a Saturday this year, Feds got a day off on the 18th.
Complimentary Webinars for FedsThe first federal holiday to be added since 1983, when Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday was commemorated, became official last week. Juneteenth, named by combining June with nineteenth, is also known by some as “emancipation day” because it recognizes an event that occurred at the end of the Civil War. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger of the Union Army informed slaves in Galveston, TX of their freedom- more than two years after Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation on January 1, 1863.
The day was first recognized as a state holiday by Texas in 1980. The new federal law that makes the date a federal holiday 41 years later was propelled by the Black Lives Matter movement, which gained momentum across the country last year. Similar movements in the past decades have attempted (unsuccessfully) to make new federally recognized days- such as March 31st becoming Cesar Chavez Day and February 15th becoming Susan B. Anthony (or Women’s Suffrage) Day.
Although the law was signed by the President on Thursday the 17th, OPM still gave “most” federal workers the day off the following day (because the 19th fell on a Saturday.) For employees who had already scheduled leave for that day, OPM announced the leave could not be restored.
Until Next Time,
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