PRINTER'S NO. 614
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No.
619
Session of
2019
INTRODUCED BY HELM, BERNSTINE, BIZZARRO, BOBACK, BROWN, BURNS,
CALTAGIRONE, DAVIDSON, DiGIROLAMO, FREEMAN, HENNESSEY, HILL-
EVANS, KINSEY, KORTZ, KULIK, LONGIETTI, MEHAFFIE, MILLARD,
NEILSON, OBERLANDER, RABB, READSHAW, ROTHMAN, RYAN, SAYLOR,
SCHLOSSBERG, SCHWEYER, SONNEY AND WHEELAND, FEBRUARY 28, 2019
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, FEBRUARY 28, 2019
AN ACT
Providing for the annual designation and holiday observance June
19 as "Juneteenth National Freedom Day" in this Commonwealth.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Legislative findings.
The General Assembly hereby finds and declares as follows:
(1) Originating in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865,
when slaves in that state learned that they had been freed,
"Juneteenth National Freedom Day" is the oldest African-
American holiday observance in the United States.
(2) "Juneteenth National Freedom Day" commemorates the
survival instinct of Africans who endured a transatlantic
journey, known as the Middle Passage, on slave ships from
their homeland to this country.
(3) Approximately 11.5 million Africans survived the
harsh voyage to slave markets in the New World, and the slave
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