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MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A bill that would establish Juneteenth as an Alabama state holiday, sponsored by a Republican, has advanced in the Alabama Legislature, to the frustration of Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, after Democratic lawmakers had unsuccessfully pushed similar legislation for years.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Rick Rehm, R-Dothan, and would make Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, as an official state holiday on June 19. The bill has four Republican cosponsors, Reps. Jerry Starnes of Prattville, Kerry Underwood of Truscumbia, Mack Butler of Rainbow City and David Faulkner of Mountain Brook.

“If you remember last year, we had a bill that was what we call a compromise bill that shared Jefferson Davis holiday with Juneteenth, and then employers were going to be able to pick,” Rehm said when introducing his bill to the House Committee on Fiscal Responsibility last week.

Givan sponsored the previous compromise bill to establish Juneteenth as a state holiday. In an effort to get the holiday recognized, it allowed state employees to decide between observing Juneteenth and Jefferson Davis Day, the latter in remembrance of the first and only president of the Confederacy, a matter of contention among supporters of officially recognizing Juneteenth as a state holiday.

On Givan’s previous bill, Rehm called it “unworkable and undoable.” Givan, speaking softly, explained that she “took a lot of heat” and “backlash” for carrying the bill last year, but still felt it was worth the effort to see Juneteenth become a state holiday, even with the bill’s accommodated  form.

Givan has filed another bill to recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday this year, but it has yet to be heard in committee, whereas Rehm’s version was considered. While she maintained that she was a supporter of the effort, she also took issue with Rehm being the lawmaker to carry such legislation.

“For 200-something years, we were enslaved, and even after we were freed by (President Abraham) Lincoln, we were still enslaved because some of us had not gotten the notice, that’s the history,” Givan said. “But I got a problem. Wherever this bill has been passed in any state, it’s never been carried and passed by a white man. I got a problem with that, and that’s why I took the beating last year.”

Visibly distraught, Givan stood up and attempted to make a quick exit before being asked to wait by one of Rehm’s constituents attending the meeting, Evangeline Reynolds-Gunn.

“Before you exit, I want you to know your words of passion, I feel it to my core,” Reynolds-Gunn said. “Please don’t leave until I finish.”

Givan paused to listen to Reynolds-Gunn.

“I want to speak with your passion, it’s bone-chilling, the words that you have stated,” Reynolds-Gunn continued.

“My ancestors are crying right now,” Givan said as she began to exit the room. “They’re crying! I’m sorry, I’ve put up with a lot in this House, but today…”

After Givan left, committee members, without comment, voted to give the bill a favorable report, with it now expected to be heard next on the House floor. Rehm, outside the committee room, told Alabama Daily News he was “sympathetic” to Givan’s frustrations, but that by him carrying it this year, it likely had a greater chance of getting passed.

“I am more able to articulate the importance of this to the majority caucus, and I think we’ll see how it goes,” he told ADN. “I have the votes, but it’s fragile.”

Recognized in at least 28 states, Juneteenth commemorates June 19 of 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger visited Galveston, Texas, and publicly proclaimed among the last remaining slaves to be free men and women. While Lincoln’s 1862 Emancipation Proclamation decreed the more than 3.5 million slaves be freed, the lack of Union troops in Texas made enforcement of the proclamation weak for years.