Juneteenth is officially a holiday in Napa County.
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The Napa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to recognize Juneteenth as an officially recognized county holiday beginning this year. Juneteenth, which commemorates when Union soldiers informed enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas of their emancipation, and the Civil War's end, on June 19, 1865, became a federal holiday last year.
Since June 19 falls on a Sunday this year, Napa County employees will receive a paid holiday on June 20.
"We are sending a clear message that Napa County understands and values the meaning of Juneteenth," Ryan Gregory, Chair of the Napa County Board of Supervisors, said in a release. "We hope that elevating this holiday for employees will allow those who are not familiar with it to learn more about Juneteenth and celebrate the significance of freedom for all."
Formerly enslaved Galveston residents celebrated the first anniversary of their emancipation, and celebrations of Juneteenth – also referred to as the second Independence Day – then spread elsewhere across the country.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Juneteenth attracted renewed interest after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, African Americans whose killings prompted worldwide protests against systemic racism, as well as additional calls to recognize Juneteenth as a holiday. A number of companies, including San Francisco-based Twitter, started to do so.
"Napa County strongly believes in celebrating Juneteenth to acknowledge and condemn the atrocities of the past and believes in honoring this day of resilience in the face of injustice and inhumanity for present and future generations," Tuesday's resolution read.
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