Observation of federal Juneteenth holiday varies throughout region

Many areas of Western Pennsylvania are inconsistent in their approach to observing Juneteenth.

Federal and state offices are closed and employees will have a paid day off Thursday for the official holiday that was designated in 2021.

Meanwhile, workers at courthouses in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties will be on the job.

Many private-sector employees around the region will have the day off to celebrate the relatively new federal holiday. It commemorates the end of slavery and marks the date when a Union general rode into Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, with the news that two years earlier, President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Allegheny County Council in 2021 set Juneteenth as a holiday, but the observance date is a moving target. That county’s government and court offices will observe the holiday on June 20 this year to facilitate a three-day weekend. The county last year moved the Juneteenth holiday to two days earlier, on a Monday, to foster another long weekend.

Pittsburgh will close its city government offices on Thursday.

According to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, 36 of the state’s 67 county courts will operate as usual on Thursday, including those in Allegheny, Westmoreland, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Indiana and Somerset.

Courts in Washington and Fayette counties will be closed on the holiday.

Banks and state driver’s license centers will be closed, and there will be no mail delivery. Most retail businesses are expected to be open.

Gabrielle Skillings, president of the Greensburg-Jeannette Branch of the NAACP, said that inconsistency is disrespectful.

“We need to acknowledge what Juneteenth is and the history behind it. If we had a better understanding of what that is, it would be a good start. Juneteenth is really our independence day and a day of justice for African Americans,” Skillings said.

She suggested the way the holiday is observed in Western Pennsylvania fails to adequately honor the end of slavery, and she challenged local communities to follow the federal and state governments and close for the day.

“It should be a federal holiday that is observed for all,” Skillings said.

In Allegheny County, the decision to set the holiday to coincide with a long weekend was one enacted by a prior administration, said Abigail Gardner, spokeswoman for county Executive Sarah Innamorato, who took office at the start of last year.

“Our current observance of this holiday mirrors the federal government’s approach to Juneteenth. Please note that council is considering legislation to move the observed date to the 19th in future years, which will be in consultation with our county employees,” said county council President Patrick J. Catena.

Westmoreland officials have previously said establishment of the Juneteenth holiday will require consent from a handful of unions that represent most of the county’s 1,800-person workforce. County employees have 13 holidays, including Flag Day, which was observed last week.

“It (Juneteenth) should be a holiday, and I proposed it last year. It’s the right thing to do to honor an important holiday,” said Democratic Commissioner Ted Kopas.

There appears to be some concurrence among commissioners. Republican Commissioner Doug Chew has said previously he favored marking Juneteenth as a holiday. His fellow Republican commissioner, Sean Kertes, did not respond to requests for comment.

Despite how it is observed by government, community organizations will observe the holiday through a series of activities throughout the region. The holiday celebration kicks off Thursday in Pittsburgh’s Mellon Park and continues with a Downtown parade on Saturday.

In Greensburg, the local NAACP is sponsoring a fair at Historic Fairview Park in Delmont featuring Black-owned businesses, while a separate event organized by Unity in the Community will be held Thursday afternoon in front of the Westmoreland County Courthouse in Greensburg, where the Emancipation Proclamation will be read.