Hawaii will likely become the next state to honor Juneteenth as a holiday after the state’s House and Senate announced Tuesday that June 19 would commemorate the end of American slavery. According to NBC News, should Hawaii’s governor greenlight the bill, the Aloha State will become the 49th to recognize Juneteenth, leaving South Dakota as the only state not to observe it.
North Dakota’s governor signed a bill on April 12 to honor Juneteenth, but South Dakota had faced several roadblocks in recognizing the holiday. NBC News reports that South Dakota’s Senate passed a measure to observe Juneteenth annually at the beginning of the year, but the House didn’t pass it through.
Hawaii posed to become 49th state to recognize Juneteenth as a holiday https://t.co/Ij6yeICgeV pic.twitter.com/mWZWGP6Pcg
— The Hill (@thehill) April 29, 2021
If Hawaii Gov. David Ige signs the bill, South Dakota will be the lone state in the U.S. that doesn’t recognize Juneteenth, an important part of not only Black history but American history in general. A contraction of the words “June” and “nineteenth” celebrates the 1865 day when troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and freed the enslaved who were still being exploited.
Though President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued two years prior, Black people were still being held as slaves throughout the country. Juneteenth, also known as “Jubilee Day,” is a day that commemorates and honors the end of American slavery. In 1979, Texas became the first state in the U.S. to make it a state holiday.
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Founder of the Popolo Project, Akemi Glenn, told NBC News that the passing of the bill would also recognize Hawaii’s Black history, saying “There’s a recognition that we’re here and that we’re part of Hawaii.”
Popolo translates to a plant with dark berries and can also refer to Black people in Hawaii. The Popolo Project aims to help establish a community for Black Hawaiians and “redefine what it means to be Black in Hawaii.”
Gov. Ige, who called Juneteenth “a day to celebrate freedom” in a 2020 proclamation, appears to be on board with signing the bill and officially making it a state holiday.
