Kentucky lawmakers announce new push to make Juneteenth a statewide holiday

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – In May, Governor Andy Beshear declared Juneteenth a state executive branch holiday.

Juneteenth commemorates the day the last slaves were freed in the United States.

Legislation has been proposed in the past three session to make it a statewide holiday, but it has not gone far.

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In a statement released Friday morning, Rep. George Brown, D-Lexington, said in part, “It is past time for the general assembly to take similar action here. With that in mind, our caucus will once again file legislation to make this goal a reality in 2025 and beyond.”

Democratic Rep. Brown said celebrating the end of slavery with Juneteenth is also about remembering that not all slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

“There were people in Texas that we still enslaved and working for no wages, and they were beaten and abused and all of that for almost two years,” said Rep. Brown. “The time has come, and the federal government has recognized it as a federal holiday and Gov. Beshear has moved and taken the bold step and we certainly appreciate his initiative.”

Despite the multiple attempts at making Juneteenth a state holiday, there is still optimism behind 2025 being the year for it to pass.

“So what’s different is that we now have an executive order, we’re now getting ready to honor Juneteenth coming up in just a few days, and then going into the next session, we hope that builds enough momentum,” said Rocky Adkins, senior advisor to Gov. Beshear.

While on his way out, Republican Rep. Killian Timoney said the time it had taken so far could be a benefit to it passing this coming session.

“I see it moving forward. I definitely do see it moving forward, and I think that we will see during a short session, in particular, the opportunity to explore more topics such as that,” said Rep. Killian Timoney R-Nicholasville.

In a statement to WKYT, Kentucky Senate Majority Spokesperson Angela Billings said:

“Kentucky already observes June 19, National Freedom Day or Juneteenth, as a state holiday. Paid state holidays are outlined in statute, and Kentucky has not expanded those paid state holidays since swapping Veteran’s Day for President’s Day in 1998. Juneteenth is a historically significant date, and your state legislature will hold interim committee meetings then. This fact does not in any way diminish the significance of this date.”