02/09/2022
JUNETEENTH IS NOW A PAID HOLIDAY FOR CITY OF AURORA STAFF beginning this year! In a historic vote tonight, the Aurora City Council unanimously approved the resolution to designate Juneteenth as a City holiday.
Mayor Irvin was joined by Black staff and council members for the signing of the resolution during tonight's Aurora City Council meeting.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, about 2 1/2 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
Juneteenth became both a federal and state law last year, As a Home Rule community, the Aurora City Council has to vote to implement the holiday for City staff.
In 2018, a similar action was taken when Martin Luther King Day was voted on to become a paid City holiday, although it had been signed into federal law 35 years prior.
www.aurora-il.org/AuroraInBlack
