December 1, 2009

Gov. Doyle makes Juneteenth Day a legal holiday

Gov. Jim Doyle today signed into law Senate Bill 170, a bill that designates June 19, Juneteenth Day, as a legal holiday.

The governor was joined by Rev. Ronald Myers, national chairman of Juneteenth Day, and Mac Weddle, the executive director of the Northcott House and local president of Juneteenth Day, for the signing at Northcott Neighborhood Center in Milwaukee.

“Milwaukee has long celebrated Juneteenth Day and I am proud that Wisconsin is moving forward to recognize this important holiday across the state,” Doyle said. “Juneteenth Day marks a historic milestone in our nation’s history and celebrates the freedom that unites all Americans.”

Juneteenth Day is the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, slaves in Texas first received word that all slaves in the U.S. had been freed by President Lincoln. Milwaukee first celebrated Juneteenth Day in the 1970s.

18 comments:

  1. Excellent. Now drunken street fights and midnight gun shoot-offs have become codified and legalized in Wisconsin as a legal "holiday." Kudos to Doyle for legalizing a "holiday" that isn't even significant to "Yankee" African-Americans.

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  2. Dear 9:20 PM, I beg to differ with you. Believe it or not, many African-Americans whose forebears relocated from the South to the Midwest during the Great Migration love Juneteenth and celebrate it sans violence of any kind.

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  3. Just another day off with pay for the government workers already sucking at the public teat

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  4. Why was there no press on this pending bill before it was signed. It's not that I necessarily have a problem with it, I do have a problem if this was done secretly.

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  5. First of all, why is passing a new law for a holiday setting precedence over our economy or creating jobs? So, spending money on a law for a holiday is more important? Interesting...

    Second, if this is such a great holiday, then why didn't I know what it was all about before now? I thought it was just another Racine festival...

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  6. This is just the democratic party trying to win favor. What about Obama today talking about 30k more troops to Afghanistan. I thought he was supposed to stop the madness. Different party same BS. What really is the difference? It doesn't matter who is in office.

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  7. Yup, one more day for government employees to "officially" not work.
    No one who actually has a productive job gets the day off, only those who suck at the trough.

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  8. 9:26 - No you didn't think. Obama is doing exactly what he said he would do when he was running his campaign. Don't talk about things you have no knowledge of.

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  9. Seems to be a lot of very angry people in racine with nothing to do but complain, I thought this was a nice town until I read the garbage.

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  10. Dustin, please tell us you posted this as a joke???? Honestly... What is this world coming to when this is a holiday now?

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  11. This is just plain stupid. With the state government cutting work hours and laying people off, they pass a senseless holiday where state employees can stay home and get paid for it. A perfect example of the liberal mindset. Let a conservative put forth such a proposition for some white guy holiday and the liberals would fight it tooth and nail. Very, very disappointing. But then, that's exactly what I've come to expect from the fools in Madison, and on our own city council. All that matters is broadening their voter base. Good riddance to Doyle when he’s gone. Now, all we have to do is vote out all the state congressmen and women who voted in favor of all the crap this jerk has passed, particularly the state budget.

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  12. The ironic thing about this holiday you ask?? Is that this falls on the day before Father's day!! Most don't know who their father is. Not being cruel, but being honest. Ask, they will tell you, it's part of EVERY hard luck success story I've ever read about or watched on TV regarding African Americans.

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  13. Three members of my family died in that war, and another got his leg blown off, fighting against traitors and the slave power.

    It's fitting to celebrate the nation's victory of freedom over slavery, especially when so many sacrificed so much to gain it, blacks and whites alike.

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  14. You have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! Most of these celebrations result in african americans getting drink, disorderly, and causing violence. However, not as bad as MLK day. Please tell me this is a joke. Can the caucasion people have white day now since we are honoring people of different days and sexual preferences thier own special days and holidays?

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  15. Juneteenth is America's second Independennce Day. Americans of African descent were enslvaed during the country's first "4th of July," Independence Day celebration. It took two and a half years for the announcement of freedom to arrive in the last geographical area where slavery was still practiced in America, southwest Texas, after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863.

    32 states, the District of Columbia and the congress of the United States all officially recognize Juneteenth Independence Day.

    Thank you Gov. Doyle.

    Together we wil see Juneteenth become a national holiday in America!

    "DOC"
    Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D.
    Chairman
    National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign
    National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF)
    National Juneteenth Christian Leadership Council (NJCLC)
    www.Juneteenth.us
    www.19thofJune.com
    www.njclc.com
    www.JuneteenthJazz.com

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  16. This is just another example of liberals pandering to blacks to make them think they are so special, when all it is, is another way to win their votes. Blacks are less than 20% of the U.S. population, yet they are treated like the majority by pandering liberals. Enough is enough. Where is the NAAWP? Why isn't there a White College Fund? And on and on. Also, I don't know any African Americans. Every black I've ever met was born in the U.S. Only those that move here from Africa can truly be called an African American. Slavery happened. It was terrible. It was ended 144 years ago (over 7 generations). No black in America alive today has any conception about what it was like. And no white person alive today has ever participated in making anyone a slave. And the white community certainly does not owe the blacks an apology for something that they are not responsible for. Remember, it wasn’t the whites in Africa that sold blacks into slavery, it was their own people. Blacks like to conveniently forget about that little fact.

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  17. How is sending 30K more troops to Afghanistan doing what Obama promised? The newspaper reported it on the front page and It is all over the internet. So how much knowledge does one need? I don't have him on speed dial like you do.

    He isn't ending the war. He is continuing to waste money and American lives.

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  18. What a joke. Sad and pathetic. Let's jsut make a holidy for every skin color and nationality. For a color that wants to be treated equally, not they want a special holiday? Hly Christmas folks, I'm speechless. I'm waiting for national gay day holidy now.

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