Democratic lawmakers push to make Juneteenth a state holiday

Around this time last year, lawmakers at the Mississippi Capitol voted to retire the state's former flag with its Confederate symbols. Today, Democratic leaders in the senate are crafting legislation that would remove yet another confederate symbol in the state -- Confederate Memorial holiday. It's the last Monday in April.

Senate Minority Leader Derrick Simmons of Greenville says the bill to repeal the Confederate holiday will replace it with Juneteenth in June, the celebration of the end of slavery in America.

"This is an effort to continue with a momentum and try to move Mississippi up into the future and not continue to hold on those ties of the past of the Confederacy," said Simmons.

Last week, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill formally recognizing Juneteenth as a national holiday.

Leslie Burl McLemore is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Jackson State University. He says it's a no-brainer. Mississippi, having the largest population of Black people in America, should make Juneteenth a state holiday. But with fewer Black people in leadership, he's concerned.

"Because we're the Blackest state in the Union, we have that resistance from the powers that be that control the levels of authority and power in Mississippi," said McLemore. "Because they clearly do not wish to see Black people share power with them in our state."

Proclamations acknowledging Confederate history in Mississippi have been an annual tradition for both Democratic and Republican governors going back to at least the Kirk Fordice administration, according to records available at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.