OLYMPIA — The Legislature has passed a measure that makes Juneteenth a legal state holiday.
The measure making June 19 a state paid holiday passed the Democratic-led Senate on a bipartisan 47-1 vote and now heads to Gov. Jay Inslee for his signature. The House passed the measure in February on an 89 -9 vote.
Juneteenth – also known as Emancipation Day and Freedom Day – commemorates when the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free in 1865 in Galveston, Texas, where Union soldiers brought them the news two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
In 2007, the Legislature designated Juneteenth as a day of remembrance. South Dakota and Hawaii are the only states that have no official observance of it.
