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The Alabama House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill to make Juneteenth a state holiday.

House Bill 165, sponsored by Rep. Rick Rehm, R-Dothan, closes state offices on June 19, which celebrates the end of slavery in the United States.

“This is a bill that is constituent driven, that was brought to me by my constituents,” Rehm said.

The legislation passed after years of efforts by Black Democrats in the Alabama Legislature, who either saw their proposals rejected or were effectively forced by Republicans to pair Juneteenth with Jefferson Davis’ birthday, a state holiday honoring the slaveholder and white supremacist who said that Black Americans were “fitted expressly for human servitude.“

The House last year approved a bill sponsored by Rep. Juanadalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, that would have required state employees to choose Juneteenth or Jefferson Davis’ birthday as their day off, a choice not required of any other state holiday.

Several Black Democrats said during the debate on the bill last year that they struggled with whether to support the legislation with the Davis requirement. The House approved the bill, but it did not come out of the Senate.

(READ MORE: Tennessee House sends bill making Juneteenth an official holiday to governor)

Several Black Democrats in the House on Thursday expressed their frustration that Rehm’s bill — which makes Juneteenth a standalone holiday not tied to Davis’ birthday — won approval from the majority Republican Legislature while Givan’s had to be altered before it could come to a vote.

“There’s something wrong that the only way it could be a good bill is that somebody else carries it, and not the people that was affected by it in the first place,” Moore said.

Rep. Napoleon Bracy, D-Mobile, echoed Moore and said he was thankful the bill would pass but was upset that it took a white Republican like Rehm to pass it.

“Sometimes we need to win for our community,” Bracy said. “We’ve had people that have brought this legislation for decades, and it wasn’t good enough.”

The bill passed 85-4 with a floor amendment by Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, that moved the effective date up to June 1 so that state employees could reap the benefits of the legislation this year.

“It was going to be taking effect on Oct. 1, and we wanted it to take effect prior to the actual holiday,” Rehm said, supporting the amendment.

Gov. Kay Ivey has signed memos for the last four years making Juneteenth a federal holiday. Juneteenth has also been a federally recognized holiday since 2021.

Alabama’s official state holiday calendar puts Robert E. Lee’s birthday on the same day as Martin Luther King’s birthday. The state also marks Confederate Memorial Day on the fourth Monday in April.

The bill goes to the Senate.

Read more at AlabamaReflector.com.