Juneteenth still missing from list of New York state holidays

Demonstrators protest institutional racism and racist police violence at a rally in Astoria Park June 1. Eagle photo by Christina Santucci

By David Brand

Juneteenth is not included in a calendar of 2021 holidays for New York state employees, despite a previous executive order from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a legislative push to codify a day commemorating the end of slavery.

The 2021 holiday calendar for state employees is published on the state website by the Department of Civil Service and excludes Juneteenth, which is observed each year on June 19. Though June 19, 2021 is a Saturday, other holidays that fall on a weekend, including the Fourth of July and Christmas, are included on the calendar.

“I’m hoping it was an oversight and, because this is so new. that one department didn’t speak to the other,” said Queens Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman, who sponsored legislation to make Juneteenth an official state holiday.

“I want it to be in all the state and city calendars that this is a holiday we are now observing,” she added.

The 2021 calendar of holidays for state employees does not include Juneteenth, despite legislation codifying the observance, as of Sept. 25. Image via ny.gov

Cuomo’s office did not provide a response for this story. His office has said he will sign legislation making Juneteenth a statewide holiday next year.

Juneteenth marks the anniversary of June 19, 1865, the date Union soldiers arrived at Galveston, Texas to announce that the Civil War had ended and that all enslaved Black and African Americans were free. The end of the war came two years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in the Confederate states.

Cuomo issued an executive order recognizing June 19, 2020 as a state holiday, but has not yet signed legislation to make Juneteenth an annual observance.

The executive order came amid weeks of demonstrations against racist police violence and institutional racism following the police killings of George Floyd in Minnesota and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.

“When it comes to systemic racism in classes across the country, we do not acknowledge slavery and the lasting effects,” Hyndman said at the time. “This is American history and we have to acknowledge it.”