The New York State Branches of The Association for The Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) will be celebrating Abolition Commemoration Day as a State Holiday on Monday, July 13, 2020. This is the second time we are celebrating this day as a holiday. It was celebrated in 2019 on July 8th at the United Christian Baptist Church, Bronx, New York. Because of the pandemic, we are asking that each of you will celebrate this day as you choose. We, the New York State Branches of ASALH, have been observing this Abolition Commemoration Day for sixteen years – July 4, 2004, in the form of a Prayer Breakfast.
The New York Branches of ASALH has requested that the Abolition Commemoration Day in New York State to be held as a State Holiday the second Monday in the Month of July each year. A Bill to this effect was placed on the New York State Assembly calendar on August 7, 2019 as Bill #A08531 as Abolition Commemoration Day Bill. It was sponsored by Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, and was co-sponsored by the Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Carl Heastie. This same Bill was introduced in the New York State Senate on August 21, 2019 as Bill #S06658 by Senator Jamaal T. Baily and co-sponsored by Senator Brian Benjamin.
Please call your Congressmen and ask them to support this Bill.
Other States celebrate their Emancipation Day, i.e. Washington, D.C.; Florida; Georgia; Kentucky, Missouri; Texas; U.S. Virgin Island and Puerto Rico.
New York State has no connection to Juneteenth. Juneteenth is Texas Emancipation Day. Slavery was abolished in America on December 18, 1865 with the passing of the 13th Amendment.