Title
AN ORDINANCE establishing June 19 of each year, Juneteenth, as a paid holiday for King County employees eligible for leave benefits; and amending Ordinance 12014, Section 23, as amended, and K.C.C. 3.12.230.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. This nation experienced a new birth of freedom with the emancipation of persons held in enslavement before the American Civil War, 1861 to 1865.
2. The end of enslavement profoundly changed the nation as a whole, remaking the political system, restructuring its economy, restoring its honor in the community of progressive nations and renewing its national promise absent the stain of slavery.
3. While a complex and troubled racial environment was to mark the nation's path for the time to come, and while, in many ways, the way forward remains a difficult one in racial terms, still, the physical shackles have been removed and that dark time was put behind us as a nation.
4. African Americans, who achieved freedom as a result of the Civil War, have traditionally celebrated the date of June 19, 1865, which is the date that the end of enslavement was proclaimed in the State of Texas, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after the surrender of Confederate forces at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia.
5. In acknowledgement of the continuing struggle for racial justice, as well as the seminal national victory that emancipation represents, the date should rightly take its place of honor as an observed holiday for employees of King County, named after the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Ordinance 12014, Section 23, as amended, and K.C.C. 3.12.230 are hereby amended to read as follows:
A. All employees eligible for comprehensive leave benefits shall be granted the following designated holidays with pay:
1. January 1, New Year's Day;
2. Third Monday in January, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day;
3. Third Monday in February, President's Da...
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