Juneteenth to be paid holiday for Jacksonville city workers

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In a 16-2 vote Tuesday, members of Jacksonville’s City Council voted in favor of making Juneteenth a paid holiday for city employees.

Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday.

Council members Rory Diamond and Al Ferraro voted against the legislation.

The city pays about $1.8 million to employees for every paid holiday, according to Brian Huges, Chief of Staff for Mayor Lenny Curry.

On June 17, President Biden signed legislation making Juneteenth an official federal holiday. “All Americans can feel the power of this day, and learn from our history,” Biden said. “Juneteenth marks both the long, hard night of slavery and subjugation, and a promise of a brighter morning to come. This is a day of profound — in my view — profound weight and profound power. A day in which we remember the moral stain, the terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take — what I’ve long called “America’s original sin.”

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