Broward won’t make Juneteenth a paid holiday

Juneteenth, a day to honor the freedom of slaves, won’t become a paid holiday in Broward County.

Broward County commissioners had considered making June 19 a paid employee day off for county staff, but decided against that Tuesday, arguing it was more effective to host educational events about the day.

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that, effective Jan. 1, 1863, all slaves would be “forever free.” But it wasn’t until June 19, 1865, when thousands of soldiers for the Union Army informed 250,000 Black slaves in Texas of their freedom from slavery and the end of the Civil War.

Juneteenth is considered the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

“We’re still in a precarious place when it comes to race,” said County Commissioner Dale Holness, who had made the proposal to turn it into a paid employee holiday. Not making it a county holiday would be a “slap in the face of Blacks in this community.”

Commissioner Beam Furr said a county holiday for thousands of employees didn’t teach about the event, but an educational effort — with materials passed out at libraries and on buses — could be more effective.

Holness said that wouldn’t be enough. “I love you all, but you don’t get it. You don’t feel it. What’s impactful: when this government shuts down for a day. Then they’ll learn more about it. … We do this, the whole county will know.

“You have to live it, to feel it, to understand.”