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RES-2020-045 3
<br /> ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
<br /> RESOLUTION DESIGNATING JUNETEENTH AS AN OFFICIAL COUNTY PAID
<br /> HOLIDAY
<br /> WHEREAS, on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation
<br /> Proclamation, a document that declared: "all persons held as slaves within any State or
<br /> designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United
<br /> States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free;" and
<br /> WHEREAS, the Emancipation Proclamation, primarily a wartime measure, intentionally
<br /> excluded people in the slave-holding border-states and the areas of the Confederacy that
<br /> already had come under Union control; and
<br /> WHEREAS, on April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to United States
<br /> General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia, and on April 26,
<br /> 1865, US Major-General W. T. Sherman and General Joseph E. Johnston finalized the
<br /> terms of surrender at the Bennett Farm House in Orange County [now Durham]; and
<br /> WHEREAS, on June 10, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger was given command of
<br /> the Department of Texas, and on June 19, 1865, two and one-half years after the signing
<br /> of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Union soldiers led by Major General Granger
<br /> arrived at Galveston, Texas with the long-awaited news that the Civil War had ended and
<br /> that enslaved people were now free; and
<br /> WHEREAS, upon his arrival in Galveston, Major General Granger read General Order
<br /> Number 3, which began: "The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a
<br /> Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves
<br /> an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves,
<br /> and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer
<br /> and free laborer"; and
<br /> WHEREAS, Juneteenth — also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and
<br /> Emancipation Day — has become a special day among African Americans to celebrate
<br /> the day when all the enslaved sons and daughters of Africa in America realized their
<br /> freedom; and
<br /> WHEREAS, only the State of Texas currently recognizes Juneteenth as an official state
<br /> holiday; and
<br /> WHEREAS, in June 2010, Governor Beverly Eaves Perdue proclaimed the observance
<br /> of Juneteenth in North Carolina, and on June 19, 2020, Governor Roy Cooper proclaimed
<br /> Juneteenth Day in North Carolina; and
<br /> WHEREAS, members of the United States Congress, including Senator Kamala Harris
<br /> of California and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, recently have introduced legislation
<br /> to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday;
<br /> NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Orange County Board of
<br /> Commissioners hereby designates Juneteenth as an official County paid holiday, thus
<br /> providing the opportunity for employees and the community-at large to join together with
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