What is Confederate Heroes Day and why do Texans still celebrate it today?
On Jan. 19 annually, state workers in Texas get the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day off, with pay, to celebrate โConfederate Heroes Day.โ The state requires agencies to keep โskeleton crewsโ so that they are operational on the holiday, unlike some others, including MLK Day, when state officers are closed. The state holiday was created less than a decade after the federal signing of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. Some Southern states this year removed Confederate symbols, statues and monikers that they had long resisted calls to disband. So, removing Confederate Heroes Day is not erasing history. According to the Texas Tribune, other states that observe โConfederate Heroes Dayโ as a holiday are: Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia.
After a year of racial reckoning, Black lawmakers believe they can finally eliminate Confederate Heroes Day in Texas
For years, a handful of Texas lawmakers have tried in vain to pass legislation that would remove or replace the holiday celebrating leaders of the Confederate army. The birthdays of Lee and Davis used to be separate Texas holidays, but lawmakers consolidated them in 1973 to create Confederate Heroes Day. State Rep. Shawn Thierry, D-Houston, filed the other in support. He plans to hold a press conference with Collier and other representatives at noon on the state holiday. In 2015, state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, filed a bill to rename the holiday Civil War Remembrance Day, but it died in committee.