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Buncombe County employees now have a Juneteenth holiday


FILE - The inclusion of Juneteenth gives Buncombe County employees a total of 13 paid holidays per year. (Photo credit: WLOS staff)
FILE - The inclusion of Juneteenth gives Buncombe County employees a total of 13 paid holidays per year. (Photo credit: WLOS staff)
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Buncombe County Commissioners voted unanimously to make Juneteenth a paid county holiday.

The proposal, approved Tuesday, was supported by the county's equity and inclusion workgroup.

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Asheville resident Thomas Boyd, an artist and rapper, is organizing a Juneteenth celebration in Martin Luther King Jr. Park on June 19. He applauded the county's effort.

"Juneteenth was the real date that we all was free. And, for it to be a paid holiday, that would be wonderful, you know for all the reparations and the stuff that's going on, you know what I'm saying? For that to even be considered, that's wonderful," Boyd said.

The inclusion of Juneteenth, also known as “Jubilee Day,” “Freedom Day,” “Emancipation Day,” or “Liberation Day,” gives Buncombe County employees a total of 13 paid holidays per year.

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The holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Army soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with the news that all enslaved people were free. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was signed 2 years earlier, that day has become recognized as the day emancipation actually took effect in one of the deepest parts of the Confederacy.

“I think it should be celebrated by our staff and the county, because it is an important date in history,” Commissioner Al Whitesides said during the May 4 meeting . “Hopefully, this will help us start the conversation and correct some of what’s happened the last 400 years. We’re saying a lot not only to our employees, but to our community.”

Commissioner Parker Sloan said this is an opportunity to educate people who many not know the day's significance in American history.

"The company I work for in my day job made this a paid holiday for us last year, and it was an educational opportunity for me. I hadn't heard the Galveston, Texas, story. I didn't realize that. I had missed that in our history. I think it's a great way to educate our staff, educate the community," Sloan said.

A news release from the county noted that Wake, Northampton, Bertie and Orange counties offer Juneteenth as a paid holiday, as do the cities of Apex, Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Durham, Greensboro, Hillsborough, Prineville, Raleigh and Winston-Salem. The Orange Water and Sewer Authority also offers Juneteenth as a paid holiday.

The county will celebrate Juneteenth on the Friday that falls closest to or on June 19. This year, Buncombe County Government administrative offices will be closed on Friday, June 18, in observance of Juneteenth. Emergency and public safety services will remain open. Any employees who are required to work that day can bank the holiday time and use it later.

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