Mass. embraces Juneteenth
Celebration is now an official state holiday
Juneteenth, the day celebrating Black freedom from slavery, is now an official holiday in Massachusetts.
Gov. Charlie Baker signed the June 19 holiday into law on Friday as part of the $1.1 billion coronavirus spending bill he inked.
Baker wrote that this “establishes Juneteenth Independence Day as an annual state holiday on June 19 in order to recognize the continued need to ensure racial freedom and equality.”
The day celebrates the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when Union troops reached Galveston, Texas, freeing the Black residents who remained enslaved there more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Juneteenth celebrations date back to the next year in Texas, and the day remains a time of celebration and gathering for many in the Black community. In Boston — in years not disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic — there’s normally a large celebration in Franklin Park.
The push to make the date a holiday comes amid a national reckoning on race. Several high-profile killings of Black people spawned heated protests starting in late May and continuing daily for weeks afterward. Demonstrators pushed for police reforms — and also for broader efforts to create equality for minorities.
In Boston, several city councilors started a push for a local version of the holiday in the days before this past June 19. The city declared the day Juneteenth, but it can only be made an official holiday by an action of the state.
Protests — some chaotic riots — continue daily in some other cities, though they’ve died down in Boston, where protests largely remained peaceful. But the push for reforms in Massachusetts remains ongoing. The state Senate passed a bill last week that would make changes to police use-offorce policies, implement more training around racism and cut qualified immunity. The House is in the middle of debating its own version of the policing bill.
Baker’s signature on the bill that made Juneteenth a holiday also signed into law $1.1 billion on spending in COVID-19-related costs as the pandemic continues. It allows for the spending of the the money the federal government has sent to the state under the CARES Act.