Juneteenth not recognized as public holiday in Kansas

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — In 2021, June 19 was recognized as a federal holiday, but that doesn’t mean state and local governments have to follow suit.

In Kansas, Juneteenth is not a public paid holiday. But Senator Oletha Faust Goudeau and other lawmakers are trying to make it happen.

“I know that the governor has talked about supporting it, but we would certainly have to get it through the full body of the legislature before that bill would go to her desk,” Faust Goudeau said.

She has proposed multiple bills, but none have received a hearing. Faust Goudeau says having the day off is empowering.

“To know that they matter, it gives us a feeling of belonging, a feeling that we are Americans, that we have all equal rights,” Faust Goudeau said.

In Sedgwick County, 2023 is the first year employees have Juneteenth off. But, he says, it has been a conversation for the last few years.

Commissioner Jim Howell said holidays cost taxpayers about $180,000 extra.

“We were a little bit slow to do that initially because there is a cost associated to that to the taxpayers, and so we want to make we’re very careful with people’s money obviously,” Howell said.

From this point on, the holiday schedule will be a part of the August budget discussion.

“Freedom is a pretty big thing for us to celebrate,” Howell said. “And so a lot of us celebrate the Independence Day, Fourth of July, but much like that, when you think about human slavery, what that meant for our history as a country, to celebrate true freedom from slavery is also something we should celebrate.”

The original decision was to replace Presidents Day with Juneteenth, but that changed in January.

“There was a lot of upset people about that, we wanted to trade out a holiday, and it seemed at the time that Presidents Day was one that a lot of people don’t even know why we have presidents day, just a day off work,” Howell said. “And so we thought we could sacrifice one to establish maybe one that’s more recognizable.”

Then, they discussed having a floating holiday so people could choose the holiday most important to them.

“We had a debate whether we should go to a floating holiday and maybe we should recognize one or the other. We let employees choose,” Howell said. “And through all that discussion, it just became obvious that adding a holiday was really the better option. So we went ahead and decided to get with the program and add the holiday.”

The City of Wichita recognizes the holiday for city employees.

TaDonne Neal is the co-chair for the Juneteenth ICT celebration and says she’s happy about the milestones Kansas has made, but there is still work to be done.

“We seek to educate not only our community about this celebration but also those that seek for understanding,” Neal said. “Seek to know how they can be involved. We know that we are not where we need to be, but it’s important to take time out to celebrate where we have, how far we’ve come.”

She says having that time off gives people the opportunity to celebrate and learn.

“I think it’s gonna be important for African Americans to have that be recognized on a local level so that they have the opportunity to take off work and come and celebrate with us so they can engulf themselves in the culture and community that we love,” Neal said.

One of her goals is to change the Kansas Bill of Rights.

“If you look at the 13th Amendment, most specifically the Kansas Bill of Rights, slavery is still a clause in our books,” Neal said. “And so that is something that we decided we want to make sure we keep at the forefront of conversation because we want to progress are not our state.”