Story at a glance
- Georgia on Wednesday designated Juneteenth a paid day off for state employees.
- Ten federal holidays are currently observed under Georgia law, and the state is likely to make Juneteenth the 11th federal holiday.
- Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also has the power to move the observance of two unnamed state holidays, formerly used to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day on April 26 and Robert E. Lee’s birthday on Jan 19.
The office of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Wednesday designated Juneteenth an official state holiday in 2022. It’s likely that the day will be recognized as Georgia state workers’ 13th mandatory day off beginning early next year.
Ten federal holidays are currently observed under Georgia law, which was last updated in 1984 when Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first observed. But President Biden in June declared June 19, or Juneteenth, commemorating the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people were freed under the Emancipation Proclamation, a federal holiday.
“The legislation that was prefiled is in keeping with the state’s traditional protocol — last updated in 1984 with the addition of MLK holiday — to recognize all federal holidays,” Katie Byrd, a spokesperson for Kemp, told The Associated Press (AP).
In a memo published Wednesday, Kemp’s office released a list of official state holidays in 2022, when the Capitol and state agencies will be closed. It includes Juneteenth, which will be observed on June 20 because June 19 is a Sunday.
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State Rep. Lauren McDonald III earlier this week introduced a bill that would mandate Georgia observe all federal holidays, including Juneteenth, which would be the state’s mandatory 13th paid holiday.
McDonald told the AP that Kemp had asked him to introduce the bill in the House, and lawmakers after they reconvene in January are likely to consider it.
Kemp is also able to shift the observance of two unnamed state holidays, formerly used to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day on April 26 and Robert E. Lee’s birthday on Jan 19. Former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said the state would no longer recognize those holidays in 2015, after nine people were killed at a Black church in South Carolina.
The unnamed state holidays this year were observed on the day after Thanksgiving and on Good Friday, or the Friday before Easter, according to a list of official state holidays designated in 2021.
Kemp in the past has designated state holidays in a memo released over the summer, but was delayed in his announcement this year as his office debated whether the state should observe Juneteenth, the AP reported.
Kemp earlier this year signed a proclamation recognizing Juneteenth, but did not designate it as an official paid holiday.
Georgia would be the 12th state to make Juneteenth a state holiday, joining Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
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