Gov. Brian Kemp is supporting a plan to add Juneteenth as a mandatory 13th holiday for Georgia state employees.
Georgia law now mandates the observance of the 10 federal holidays set in 1984, when Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first observed. But a new federal law signed by President Joe Biden added Juneteenth as an 11th federal holiday, marking the 1865 date that some enslaved Black people in Texas became among the last in Confederacy to learn that Abraham Lincoln had ordered them freed through 1863’s Emancipation Proclamation.
“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,” said Katie Byrd, a spokesperson for Kemp.
Read this story now for free
To continue reading, sign up for our newsletter and get unlimited access to WABE.org
You can select your preferences for news and local content. We will never share your email address. Learn how your newsletter sign-up will support WABE and Public Media
