The Alaska Senate advanced legislation to the House that would establish Juneteenth, a national celebration of the end of slavery, as a state public holiday.
Anchorage Democrat Elvi Gray-Jackson, the second Black woman to be elected to the state Senate, said Wednesday on the Senate floor that a Juneteenth holiday would be “a chance to celebrate the progress we have made.”in 2001 to recognize Juneteenth through an annual proclamation, but the measure did not establish June 19 as Alaska’s 12th state public holiday. SB 22 would give state employees a paid day off for Juneteenth, depending on approval by labor union bargaining units.
Opposition to the Senate’s Juneteenth holiday bill focused on its estimated $1.3 million price tag for direct costs, which would largely be incurred for providing overtime pay to some state employees, such as Alaska State Troopers and correctional officers. The four Senate Republicans who voted against it were David Wilson, Mike Shower, Shelley Hughes and Robb Myers.
Wilson, the first Black man elected to the Alaska Senate, said that establishing Juneteenth as a public holiday would further commercialize the day with businesses attempting to profit from it.Sen. David Wilson, R-Wasilla, on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023 at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau. Wilson said the true value of Juneteenth was in its history, and that the cost of another public holiday would be better spent on increasing access for minorities to essential services like health care. In a brief interview after the floor vote, Gray-Jackson bristled at those cost concerns.Anchorage Republican Rep. Stanley Wright, one of a few Black legislators to have served in the state House, introduced his own Juneteenth bill in January.
“It’s an opportunity for folks to understand where they came from and understand the past,” Wright said of Juneteenth. “We don’t take the time to understand our history.”to make Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples Day in October municipal holidays.
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