The Tennessee Senate State and Local Government committee voted to recommend a bill for passage that would make Juneteenth a paid holiday in Tennessee.
SB269 was sponsored by Senator Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) and, according to the Tennessee General Assembly, this bill would change the “designation of June 19, known as ‘Juneteenth,’ from a day of special observance to a legal holiday.”
The bill had stalled in recent legislative sessions.
Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) explained that this holiday is important to not only Black Tennesseans, but also Tennesseans across the state.
According to the fiscal summary of the bill, this would cost almost $692,000 for local governments if they “opt to observe the holiday.” They also said “there will be an unquantifiable permissive recurring increase in local expenditures.”
The fiscal note of this bill assumed this was estimated after information from the Department of Human Resources said “4,000 employees earn compensatory time or some type of overtime annually on July 4th.”
Juneteenth has been observed for 156 years and, according to the Smithsonian Institute, this holiday commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people on June 19, 1865. While the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, the Smithsonian Institute said everyone in “Confederate territory” did not become free until two years later.