St. Paul Board Of Education Approves Juneteenth As District Holiday

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- The St. Paul Board of Education approved Juneteenth as a district holiday Tuesday night.

The move means district employees will receive a paid vacation day on June 19, or the preceding Friday or following Monday if the day falls on a weekend.

Juneteenth, also known as "Emancipation Day," commemorates the day in 1865 when Black Americans in Galveston, Texas finally learned they had been freed two-and-a-half years earlier, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Juneteenth was made a federal holiday in 2020. In its declaration, the St. Paul board also encouraged the Minnesota Legislature and Gov. Tim Walz to make it a state holiday.