CITY OF SEATTLE
ORDINANCE __________________
COUNCIL BILL __________________
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AN ORDINANCE relating to City employment; establishing Juneteenth as a legal holiday for certain City employees and a legal parking holiday; amending other provisions to implement Juneteenth as a legal holiday, conform with state law, and make technical corrections; and amending Sections 4.20.190 and 11.14.277 of the Seattle Municipal Code.
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WHEREAS, on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation legally ended slavery in the Confederate states, but the low presence of Union troops and refusal of white slaveowners to comply with the proclamation prolonged slavery in Texas; and
WHEREAS, on June 19, 1865, two and one-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and over a month after the end of the Civil War, a Union general arrived in Galveston, TX and issued General Order No. 3 securing the Union Army's authority over Texas and informing enslaved persons in the state that they were free by executive decree; and
WHEREAS, June 19 has been celebrated in smaller communities across the nation as Juneteenth and also is known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, Emancipation Day, and Black Independence Day; and
WHEREAS, Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States; and
WHEREAS, while over 155 years have passed since chattel slavery was officially ended in the United States, slavery has left a catastrophic and unrelenting legacy of trauma for generations of Black Americans and the nation continues to struggle with dismantling discriminatory systems and structural racism; and
WHEREAS, establishing Juneteenth as a legal holiday and parking holiday brings awareness and consciousness to a crucial day in history and is a distinct step toward achieving racial equity, working toward an antiracist future and ending the historical and continued harms of slavery; and
WHEREAS, the United States go...
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