SC celebrates Confederate Memorial Day as a holiday, but not Juneteenth. That could change

June 19, or Juneteenth, is a national holiday that commemorates the day when enslaved Black people learned of their freedom. And while some Southern states — historically harsh in their treatment of Black Americans — recognize the day as a legal holiday, South Carolina, birthplace of the Civil War, still does not.

A group of lawmakers want to change that, though a similar attempt already stalled in recent years.

State Reps. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland; John King, D-York; Michael Rivers, D-Beaufort; and Jermaine Johnson, D-Richland have pre-filed a bill — H. 4555 — aiming to designate Juneteenth as a state legal holiday, which means state government offices would be closed and state employees would receive a paid day off.

Nationally, Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in the United States. The holiday observes the anniversary of June 19, 1865, believed to be the date the last enslaved people in the former Confederacy were liberated by the Emancipation Proclamation. It was marked as a federal holiday for the first time by President Joe Biden in 2021.

“Based on what Juneteenth represents, not only nationally, but even locally, I think to recognize it as a state holiday is good thing, and to not do it when you’ve done it in other situations seems a little bit inconsistent,” Rivers said.

The inconsistency to which Rivers is referring involves another holiday that, like Juneteenth, is connected to the outcome of the Civil War — namely, Confederate Memorial Day, which South Carolina observes as state holiday each year on May 10 to commemorate South Carolinians who died fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War. The state has recognized the holiday since 1896 and has mandated its celebration since 2000.

While Southern states including Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and North Carolina recognize Juneteenth as a legal holiday, South Carolina remains one of six other Southern states that do not, including Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

The newly filed House bill is not the first effort to recognize Juneteenth as a South Carolina holiday. Three years ago, state Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, introduced a similar bill to allow state workers to substitute Confederate Memorial Day with Juneteenth if they chose. The measure, S. 5, received bipartisan support and in 2022 passed the Senate unanimously, but it ultimately stalled in the House that same year.

Jackson reintroduced the proposal again last year, S. 8, which could be taken up again during the 2024 legislative session. But in cautioning his colleagues in the House who sponsored H. 4555, he urged the importance of strong bipartisan support.

“My advice to them would be to do what I did in the Senate, go to people individually and explain to them why (the bill) is important,” Jackson said. “But I do think that there’s a pathway to actually get it done if we work together on it.”