{"id":29576,"date":"2021-03-04T11:03:25","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T17:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29576"},"modified":"2021-03-04T11:43:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T17:43:37","slug":"holidays-recognizing-malcolm-x-juneteenth-proposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29576","title":{"rendered":"Holidays recognizing Juneteenth, Malcolm X proposed"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 19 and Malcolm X\u2019s birthday would each become new state holidays under bills considered March 3 by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Justin Wayne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB29, introduced by Omaha Sen. Justin Wayne, would replace the existing Arbor Day state holiday with Juneteenth \u2014 a commemoration of June 19, 1865, the date when the last enslaved person in America was freed.<\/p>\n

Wayne said that date was the “true Declaration of Independence” for all Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cNebraska adopting Juneteenth as a state holiday is another important way that we as a state can honor the sacrifices that were made to this country,\u201d Wayne said. \u201cIt is June 19th where slavery and the Confederacy were finally ended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wayne said that replacing Arbor Day \u2014 observed on the last Friday in April \u2014 with Juneteenth would avoid the expense of adding a state holiday.<\/p>\n

Karen Bell-Dancy, executive director of the YWCA of Lincoln, testified in support of the bill. Juneteenth currently is regarded by many as a holiday only for Black Americans, she said, and establishing it as a state holiday would signal its importance to all people.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking Juneteenth a state holiday is one gesture that would not only demonstrate recognition of the past but would also be an affirmation that Black lives matter,\u201d Bell-Dancy said.<\/p>\n

Annette Harris of Omaha also testified in support. She said many individuals don\u2019t realize that slavery continued in practice for more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy making this a holiday it will open up the doors where everyone, all children \u2014 white and Black \u2014 will be aware of why we celebrate Juneteenth,\u201d Harris said. \u201cI think it\u2019s long overdue.\u201d<\/p>\n

LB349, introduced by Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha, would establish May 19 as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Malcolm X Day in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Terrell McKinney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

McKinney said Malcolm X is recognized worldwide as a champion of human rights but his contributions to equality and justice have been overlooked in his home state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always been extremely disgusted and disheartened by the lack of acknowledgement and appreciation shown by our state to Malcolm,\u201d McKinney said. \u201cMalcolm X is a symbol of perseverance and perpetuates the notion that a person\u2019s past does not define them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leo Louis, President of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation, testified in support of LB349. By recognizing Malcolm X as a human rights icon, the state of Nebraska would honor his contributions to establishing an ethnic identity for Black Americans similar to that of Czech Americans or Polish Americans, he said.<\/p>\n

Also testifying in support was Kara Warner of Omaha. She said it saddens her that many Nebraskans are unaware that Malcolm X was born and raised in Omaha.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of brother Malcolm\u2019s boldness and resiliency, I have made it my personal duty and responsibility to introduce Black youth to the many contributions brother Malcolm provided us,\u201d Warner said.<\/p>\n

No opponents to either bill appeared at the hearing and the committee took no immediate action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 19 and Malcolm X\u2019s birthday would each become new state holidays under bills considered March 3 by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29548,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[191],"class_list":["post-29576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-military-and-veterans-affairs","tag-sen-justin-wayne"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/LB349McKinney3-3-21a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29576"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29583,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29576\/revisions\/29583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}