Alabama bill proposes workers choose between celebrating Juneteenth or Confederate president

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The Bill: 

H.B. 4, passed by Alabama’s state House of Representatives earlier this month, would allow Juneteenth and Jefferson Davis’ birthday to be state holidays in which employees would get the day off from work. But there’s a catch—they’d have to choose which one of the days they’ll take off and celebrate.

“Employees shall be given the option to observe either Jefferson Davis' birthday or Juneteenth as a state holiday,” H.B. 4 states.

Juneteenth, which is celebrated on June 19, marks the day the last Black people enslaved in the U.S. were freed. Jefferson Davis’ birthday is on June 3. Davis was the president of the Confederacy, the group of states that seceded from the U.S., causing the Civil War.

The Backlash: 

As the Civil War was fought, in part, over slavery and Davis led the states that were fighting on behalf of protecting slavery, many see giving Alabamans the choice to celebrate a pro-slavery official’s birthday or a date that marks the end of slavery as offensive and racist.

“Only Alabama would propose making Juneteenth a state holiday the day as Jefferson Davis in order to [appease] both the rednecks & Blacks,” an X user tweeted. “Backwards state. Still celebrate the Confederacy & allows the giant confederate flag fly on I-65.” As of 10 months ago, a large Confederate flag was visible from an interstate highway in Alabama.

“Alabama allows state workers to reveal that they're racist through choice of holidays,” another X user wrote.

“Alabama let go of the fucking slavery,” another X user tweeted.

The Background: 

Davis’s birthday is a holiday in multiple Southern states, and it’s one of three state holidays that celebrate the Confederacy. Robert E. Lee’s birthday and Confederate Memorial Day are the other two.

On the bill’s proposed choice between taking one of the holidays off, Alabama state Representative Juandalynn Givan, who sponsored H.B. 4, told the Washington Post that it’s “an acknowledgment that history happened”—even if the choice comprises that acknowledgment.

“It was a compromise. Did we like it? No. But can we live with it? Yes,” she said. “Are we hopeful for the future? Absolutely.”

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