Momentum grows to make Juneteenth a federal holiday

WASHINGTON — Changing public attitudes about racial inequality could propel a legislative effort to make Juneteenth — a day to recognize the end of slavery — a new federal holiday.

Lawmakers are already taking extraordinary steps following the spate of recent incidents involving the deaths of African Americans at the hands of police.

Ahead of Juneteenth, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., ordered Thursday that all portraits of former House speakers who served in the Confederacy be removed from the U.S. Capitol.

She called Juneteenth a “beautiful and proud celebration of freedom for African Americans.”

“Very sadly, this day comes during a moment of extraordinary national anguish, as we grieve for the hundreds of black Americans killed by racial injustice and police brutality, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others,” Pelosi said.

With the Black Lives Matter movement building, lawmakers are considering the possibility of a Juneteenth federal holiday to commemorate the 1865 excursion by the Union Army to Galveston, Texas, to free the last known held slaves in the former Confederate States.

Lawmakers in both political parties have sponsored resolutions in the House and Senate to recognize June 19 as the federal holiday — but legislation has never been passed by both chambers of Congress.

Changing attitudes

After three weeks of demonstrations following the death of Floyd in Minneapolis, changing social attitudes about institutional racism could be the public pressure needed to push Congress to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.

Since 2013, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, has filed annual resolutions requiring the House to recognize the historical significance of June 19.

The resolutions never received more than 57 co-sponsors.

But this year, Jackson Lee’s resolution has garnered more than 200 co-sponsors, including Democratic and Republican members of the Nevada congressional delegation — Dina Titus, Mark Amodei, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee.

With the increased support for the resolution, Jackson Lee told local media outlets in Texas that she is working on a bill that would make Juneteenth a federal holiday, legislation that Titus said she would support.

“Juneteenth is an important reminder of the work we still must do to bend the arc of history towards justice,” Titus said.

“Too many American citizens don’t understand the significance of Juneteenth, and making it a federal holiday would help change that. The end of slavery in the United States is something we should all celebrate,” she said.

Horsford, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said “this day is especially important this year, as we mourn the deaths of black men and women across the country, and look toward passing into law the Justice in Policing Act with concrete federal reforms to address the root causes of these injustices and biases that persist today.”

“On this year, the 155th anniversary of the first Juneteenth, let us hold close this reminder of how far our country has come in the trek toward equality and justice for all — and how much progress there is yet to accomplish,” Horsford said.

Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Republican African American in the Senate, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that a Juneteenth federal holiday could be an educational tool to mark the historical significance of the date.

“I’m open to it,” Scott said in the television interview. “I think it’s a brilliant idea.”

Scott said conservatives in the House were also open to the idea, “so you never know what might happen.”

Moving a rally

The South Carolina senator was instrumental in persuading President Donald Trump to move his Tulsa, Oklahoma, presidential campaign rally from Friday to Saturday after the first scheduled date created an uproar.

Juneteenth is also the anniversary of a Tulsa race massacre in 1921.

Trump also created an uproar following demonstrations in the wake of the Floyd death. Some of those protests turned violent, and Trump took a hard-line stance. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he said, comments that caused wide concern in both parties.

Following the removal of peaceful demonstrators for a photo-op in Lafayette Square, and the threat to use military force to disperse demonstrations, the president toned down his rhetoric, on the advice of aides and allies, including Scott.

Trump tweeted that he moved the Tulsa rally after “many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents.”

Every recent American president, from Trump to Bill Clinton, has observed Juneteenth in commemorative speeches.

And 47 states and the District of Columbia observe the day, although it has been just recently that the states took action. Texas was first, in 1980, to officially recognize the date. Montana was one of the last, in 2017, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Nevada recognized the date in 2011.

Making Juneteenth a federal holiday would be good for Nevada, Titus said, because the state “played an important role in bringing about the end of slavery when it joined the Union during the Civil War and supported the ratification of the 13th Amendment.”

States that do not recognize Juneteenth include Hawaii and North and South Dakota, according to the Congressional Research Service.

This week, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat whose first term was embroiled in controversy over his use of blackface in college, called on the Commonwealth to make Juneteenth a paid state holiday. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would do so next year.

Protests and response

Meanwhile, Floyd’s death resulted in three weeks of demonstrations in cities across the country, including nightly protests in Las Vegas and other Nevada cities.

Lawmakers in both political parties have acknowledged systemic racism.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has sought a federal investigation into the death of Breonna Taylor in his hometown of Louisville. He said the question of institutional racism is “not in dispute.”

Taylor, an emergency medical technician, died in her bed from multiple gunshot wounds following a botched no-knock police raid.

Following the Floyd killing, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found Americans were more concerned about the unjust treatment and death of a black man while in police custody than about demonstrations, including those that turned violent.

The poll found 59 percent of voters were troubled by Floyd’s death, including 54 percent of white respondents, 65 percent of Latinos and 78 percent of black respondents.

There were 27 percent of respondents who said they were more concerned about the demonstrations and protests.

The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters between May 28 and June 2. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Treatment by police against people of color has prompted a change in public attitudes and a reversal of policies by companies and even the NFL.

Many companies, including Nike, Target, Twitter and others, are marking the day with a staff-paid holiday.

A change in public attitude in 1983 preceded Congress creating the last federal holiday, to recognize assassinated civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. That took place 20 years after his historic 1963 march on Washington.

Although a bill was filed by the late-Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., following the assassination of King, there was little appetite in Congress to create a federal holiday, a costly proposition because it requires shutting down the federal government with pay for employees.

But state and local support grew for recognition of King. With local holidays and commemorative celebrations of his nonviolence demonstrations for racial equality.

The House passed the legislation, 338-90, and later the Senate approved it, 78-22, following lengthy debate and attempts to block the bill by the late Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C.

President Ronald Reagan immediately signed it into law.

Lots of holidays

While Congress has created 11 federal holidays, there have been 1,100 proposals for holidays that have failed to be enacted, including those to recognize farmworker and labor organizer Cesar E. Chavez and a call to make Election Day a federal holiday.

But extraordinary events and changing attitudes about racism have already resulted in unforeseen actions, like Pelosi’s call for the removal of portraits of former House Speakers Robert Hunter of Virginia, Howell Cobb of Georgia, James Orr of South Carolina and Charles Crisp of Georgia.

“The halls of Congress are at the very heart of our democracy,” Pelosi said. “There is no room in the hallowed halls of Congress or in any place of honor for memorializing men who embody the violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy.”

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.