California Assembly Bill 1655 - Juneteenth Paid Holiday for the State of California

AB 1655, State holidays: Juneteenth
California Legislative Black Caucus - Priority

Existing law designates specific days as holidays in this state.

Existing law designates holidays on which community colleges and public schools are required to close.

Existing law entitles state employees, with specified exceptions, to be given time off with pay for specified holidays.

Existing law designates optional bank holidays.

This bill would add June 19, known as “Juneteenth,” to these lists of holidays. The bill would require community colleges and public schools to close on June 19. The bill would require the California State University, and request the University of California, to close campuses on June 19. The bill would require that state employees, with specified exceptions, be given time off with pay on June 19.

By increasing the duties of local officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

The State of California, a “Free State” Sanctioned Slavery and in a strict reading of the law, still does.

According to the U.S. history most of us are familiar with, California came into the Union in 1850 as a “free state.”

Slavery was an evil that occurred in the south, far from here, or so we were taught. Yet famed for its liberal reputation, California has a far more complicated history, according to Susan Anderson, a very noted California History Scholar.

Slavery in California remains an open secret, with ongoing impacts hidden by design.

One block from Old Sacramento Supreme Court Chambers the auction block of "enslaved" prisoners of war were sold and all along the American River Parkway in the shadow of the early California State Capitol construction, enslavement of people of African Descent, Genocide of Indigenous Nations, Kanakas, Mexicans, Chileans and anybody with melanin pigmentated skin was not a citizen in 1849.

Our unique California Juneteenth Journey towards freedom is poised to find the light of day and an initial hearing Spring 2022, we will help make sure the United States Colored Troops who paid the price on the battlefield are not forgotten.

Freedom is never free, and so many Union and Confederate troops paid the price to end the US Civil War and start a new beginning along a new journey towards equity and equality called, Juneteenth, A Celebration of Freedom.