Graham’s city council voted 4-1 this week to add Juneteenth, which is observed on June 19 of each year, as a 13th annual paid holiday for city employees.
Councilman Bobby Chin voted against amending the personnel policy to include Juneteenth as a paid holiday. Mayor Chelsea Dickey, mayor pro tem Ricky Hall, and council members Bonnie Whitaker and Jim Young voted in favor.
There was no discussion among the council members during their latest monthly meeting Tuesday night.
Graham’s city council had agreed in April, at the request of councilman Jim Young, to consider amending the city’s personnel policy during this month’s council meeting to add Juneteenth as a paid holiday.
Graham city manager Megan Garner estimated that it would cost the city $43,706 to provide Juneteenth as a paid holiday for the city’s 260 employees, based on a breakdown that she provided to The Alamance News late last month.
Juneteenth is observed on June 19th each year and marks the date on which federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 – two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865, ending the Civil War – to ensure that all enslaved people were freed, according to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Several other municipalities – Elon, Gibsonville, Green Level, and Mebane – in the county offer Juneteenth as a paid holiday for their employees; Alamance County government does not.
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Note: the May 14, 2026 print version of this story included Burlington as one of the jurisdictions that provides a Juneteenth holiday for its employees. However, it does not, city officials told The Alamance News after publication.
Burlington mayor Beth Kennett had incorrectly informed Graham mayor Chelsea Dickey in a text message earlier this year that Burlington provides Juneteenth as a holiday for its employees.
Burlington city manager Bob Patterson told the newspaper late last week that the city follows the state’s schedule for paid holidays, which does not include a paid holiday for Juneteenth.
Eligible state employees have the option to take eight hours off on Juneteenth – or any other day of cultural, religious, or personal significance – as paid “personal observance leave,” under an executive order signed by then-Gov. Roy Cooper on June 6, 2022.
The city of Burlington does not follow this part of state policy, although it recognizes the same 12 paid holidays as the state.
Congress established Juneteenth as a paid holiday for federal employees in 2021.
Juneteenth is not an annual paid holiday for state government employees in North Carolina, all eligible state employees have the option to take eight hours off on Juneteenth – or any other day of cultural, religious, or personal significance – as paid “personal observance leave,” under an executive order signed by then-Gov. Roy Cooper in June 2022.
The change takes effect immediately, according to the city’s human resources director, Lorrie Andrews.
