Juneteenth proclaimed state holiday again in Alabama, after bill to make it permanent falters

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has again authorized Juneteenth as a state holiday this year. Ivey’s office said Monday that June 19 will be a state workers’ holiday coinciding with the federal holiday. Juneteenth has been a federal holiday since 2021. It commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. on June 19, 1865 — the day enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned from Union soldiers they’d been freed. This is the fourth year Ivey has made it a state holiday by proclamation. Efforts in the Alabama legislature to add Juneteenth as a permanent state holiday have not succeeded so far.