Today is Juneteenth. It marks the day—June 19, 1865—when word of the Emancipation Proclamation reached the slaves in Galveston Bay, Texas. Union General Gordon Granger delivered the news that President Lincoln had issued two and a half years earlier.
“Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.”
Tomorrow, June 20th, is West Virginia’s birthday. It is coincidental—but historically notable—that Juneteenth and West Virginia’s birthday are adjacent. Our state was on the right side of history in the Civil War. Western Virginia leaders aligned with the union and the split led to the creation of our state.
One of our state’s leading Founding Fathers was Francis Harrison Pierpont. He served as governor of the Reorganized Government of Virginia from 1861 until June 20th, 1863, when West Virginia became a state. He was an outspoken abolitionist. According to his biography in the American Battlefield Trust:
“While governor, Pierpont worked tirelessly helping the Union war effort. He created loyal Virginia regiments, raised funds, combated Confederate sympathizers, and coordinated with the Lincoln administration. All the while, he worked to get Virginia restored to the Union. He also promoted the creation of “free schools” and supported extending rights to freedmen; in 1864, he convened a constitutional convention to abolish slavery.”
Today is a federal holiday. Federal government offices are closed along with the post office, most banks and the stock market. For the last four years, West Virginia has observed Juneteenth and closed state government offices for the day. But not this year.
Governor Morrisey’s office said in a statement to WOWK TV that the governor will recognize the day with an official proclamation. However, it is not a state holiday and state workers will not have the day off, although Friday, June 20th, IS a state holiday and state government offices will be closed.
This puts county offices in a bind. State Attorney General J.B. McCuskey said on Charleston’s 580 Live that state law “requires county commissions to manage courthouse operations and observe federal holidays.”
From a practical standpoint, all this means not much government work is going to be accomplished today. State workers who have the opportunity may take today off anyway to coincide with the Friday holiday for a four-day weekend. Don’t fault them for that. State employees typically sacrifice higher pay in the private sector for better benefits with the state.
But back to the history.
On December 31, 1862, President Lincoln signed the bill into law approving West Virginia’s admission into the union as long as it would adopt a plan for emancipation. Lincoln wrote to Pierpont, “We can scarcely dispense with the aid of West Virginia in this struggle; much less can we afford to have her against us, in congress and in the field.”
In West Virginia we appropriately celebrate our state’s creation that was forged out of the great conflict of the Civil War. We rightfully acknowledge the state’s indelible bond with Lincoln, The Great Emancipator.
That bond includes Juneteenth, a day of historic significance commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States and the true beginning of the fulfillment of the promise in the country’s founding of equality for all.
Yes, this is a state holiday.