By Judge Audrey Headrick, Chattanooga

Perhaps you were recently contacted by Bureau staff regarding resetting a hearing or mediation scheduled for June 19. That is because on May 5, 2023, Governor Bill Lee signed a bipartisan bill making Juneteenth an official state holiday. So all state offices will be closed.

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, or Jubilee Day, occurred on June 19, 1865. On that day, Union Troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas and announced that the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation freed all enslaved black people. Over 250,000 people learned of their freedom two months after the Civil War ended. That monumental event, the official end to slavery in the United States, is considered our country’s second independence day. 

The newly freed people in Texas started an annual celebration on June 19, 1866. Later, Texas led the way as the first state that made Juneteenth an official holiday in 1979. 

Since then, Congress passed a resolution signed by the president in 2021 making Juneteenth a national holiday. Significantly, Juneteenth is the first national holiday enacted since the 1983 designation of Martin Luther King Day as a federal holiday. 

So, Tennessee workers’ compensation practitioners: don’t forget that it’s not a business day for purposes of calculating when pleadings are due. For example, under our rules, briefs, witness and exhibit lists are due ten business days before a hearing. Responses to motions are due within five business days. Also, summary judgment responses are typically due five business days before the hearing.

We hope you can take a little time on June 19 (or the weekend before) to commemorate the occasion. Find an event in your community. Go to a museum, read a book, or watch a documentary about slavery. Support a black-owned business. The ideas abound. Or just take a moment or two to reflect on the meaning of this historic day.