House Bill 119 establishes Juneteenth as a State holiday and replaces one of the “floating holidays” that was created when the state stopped recognizing Columbus Day. The bill has been released from committee but it is not yet on the House Agenda for today. So that unfortunately means it has no chance of passage by the House or Senate by June 19, the day of Juneteenth.
This is a shame because it means that the Delaware General Assembly is more dysfunctional than the United States Congress, which managed to pass their own bill this week making Juneteenth a Federal holiday in time for this year’s observance.
What is Juneteenth? it is short for June Nineteenth, which is when the U.S. Army finally entered the traitorous Confederate State of Texas after the end of the Civil War to ensure that state’s unconditional surrender, and to ensure that all African American slaves were freed.
Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday.
| HOUSE BILL 119 SPONSORS | YES VOTES | NO VOTES |
| Dorsey Walker, Bolden, Chukwuocha, Cooke, K.Johnson, Lambert, Minor-Brown, S.Moore, Wilson-Anton, Baumbach, Griffith, Kowalko, Lynn, Morrison, Osienski, K.Williams, M.Smith, Briggs King | ||
| Brown, Lockman, Pinkney, Gay, S.McBride, Sokola, Townsend | ||
| CURRENT STATUS — |
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