Holiday list loses day recognizing Confederate icons; gains Election Day
by Larry Chowning –
The Middlesex County Board of Supervisors voted, 4-0, Oct. 6 on a 2020-2021 calendar that eliminates Lee-Jackson Day as a holiday and instead will give holiday status to county employees on “Election Day.”
The decision by the board of supervisors to drop Lee-Jackson Day from the calendar comes on the heels of efforts across the South and Virginia to take down Confederate statues and flags associated by some as symbols of hate.
With its decision to eliminate the holiday, Middlesex supervisors did not suggest they were making a political statement. Middlesex County Assistant County Administrator Betty Muncy recommended the board consider the change because traditionally the county has established its annual calendar in accordance with the State of Virginia’s holiday calendar.
During the 2020 General Assembly Norfolk Delegate Joseph Lindsey introduced HB 108 bill to make Election Day a state holiday and remove Lee-Jackson Day as a holiday. The Virginia House voted on Feb. 6, 55-42, to remove Lee-Jackson Day as a holiday, while the state senate voted, 21-19, on Feb. 22 to remove the holiday.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam supported the legislation. “I don’t think there’s any secret that it’s in honor of two individuals who fought to prolong slavery, which is not a proud aspect of Virginia’s history,” he said in a Richmond Times Dispatch interview in January.
The legislative vote came before the May 25 incident in Minneapolis, Minn., when George Floyd was killed by a white police officer while being arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit bill. This sparked a series of “Black Lives Matter” rallies throughout the country and in Middlesex County.
Lee-Jackson Day history
The Jan. 19 birthday of Confederate Civil War general and Virginia native Robert E. Lee has been celebrated as a state holiday since 1890. In 1904, fellow Confederate Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s birthday, Jan. 21, was added to the holiday by state legislators and it became Lee-Jackson Day and a state holiday.
In 1983, Jan. 15 was declared a federal holiday to honor Civil Rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Until then, Virginians had celebrated King’s birthday with the New Year. At that point, legislators agreed to celebrate the birthdays of all three men on the same day.
Lee-Jackson-King Day became a state holiday but many disagreed with honoring a civil rights leader and two Confederate generals simultaneously. In 2000, the two holidays were split with Lee-Jackson Day celebrated on Friday and Martin Luther King Day on the Monday after, creating a four-day holiday.
In March 2003, the Middlesex County School Board voted, 3-2, to eliminate Lee-Jackson Day as a holiday from its calendar. Then assistant superintendent of Middlesex County Public Schools Cynthia Pitts said that a recent decision by a school appointed calendar committee recommending that schools be open on Lee-Jackson Day “had nothing to do with politics.”
She explained the Lee-Jackson Day holiday comes only a short time after a long Christmas break and closing school on that Friday would again result in a four-day weekend. She said the committee felt students could not afford to lose that extra day of instruction.
At the March 2003 meeting, present school board members Dr. Richard Shores and Jim Goforth and former school board member Beth Hurd voted to eliminate the holiday.
The late John M. (Buddy) Moore argued the historical significance of Lee and Jackson to Virginia history and Elliott Reed, the only African-American on the board, voted to keep the holiday. Reed said at the time that if the school board had considered opening schools on Martin Luther King Day, he would have “raised Cain. I wouldn’t deny anyone their history, nor would I want to be denied.”
Board members Reggie Williams, Lud Kimbrough, Wayne Jessie and Pete Mansfield voted to remove Lee-Jackson Day as a holiday. Hartfield representative John Koontz was not in attendance.
