HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (AP) - A county in North Carolina has voted to make Juneteenth a paid holiday for employees.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners unanimously decided on Tuesday to honor June 19, the day in 1865 that all enslaved Black people learned they had been freed from bondage. The holiday has reached a new level of recognition in the wake of nationwide protests against racial inequality and police brutality.
The board’s only Black commissioner, Renee Price, proposed the change in July, The News & Observer reported.
“This really is to acknowledge that Juneteenth really is a day of freedom for African Americans,” the newspaper quoted Price as saying. “For years, we’d go along with July Fourth with other folks having that as a major holiday, but it really was not a freedom day for people of color and African descent.”
The move was expected to cost taxpayers about $61,000 in salaries and benefits, according to the county.
Wake County said in July that it was the first in the state to make Juneteenth a paid county holiday. The Chapel Hill Town Council, the Durham County Board of Commissioners and the Durham City Council are expected to consider similar proposals this year, officials said.
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