Juneteenth could be state holiday

Posted on March 25, 2021
Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood) is the sponsor of a bill to make Juneteenth – June 19, marking the end of slavery – a state holiday. (Photo courtesy: Dave Dahl/WJBC)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery on June 19, 1865, would become a state holiday in Illinois, under a bill which has passed a committee.

The bill, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood), passed unanimously after Lightford rebuffed questions from Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) about personnel costs for another holiday and whether Juneteenth could simply bump a lesser holiday from the state calendar.

“Juneteenth is considered the longest running African-American holiday in the United States,” said Lightford, “and is considered the second American Independence Day.”

Lightford said Juneteenth has grown from simply the celebration of the end of slavery into a festival of arts, culture, and the impact of the civil rights movement upon the nation.

SB 1965 has passed the Senate Executive Committee.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]. 

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