Alabama tells residents to pick between Juneteenth and Jefferson Davis' birthday to get day off work

Alabama's House of Representatives passed a bill in early April that enshrines Juneteenth as a holiday.

The catch is, Alabamians would have to choose to take off work on Juneteenth or on the president of the Confederacy's birthday, which is already a state holiday.

This is set to put Alabama state employees in an awkward spot. 

They can either celebrate Juneteenth on June 19 - the holiday commemorating the day black people in the US were freed from slavery - or they can celebrate the birthday of Jefferson Davis on June 3, who led the Confederate states during the Civil War and fought to keep slavery alive.

'Employees shall be given the option to observe either Jefferson Davis' birthday or Juneteenth as a state holiday,' the bill reads.

Now that the bill has been passed through the state house, it will head to the State Senate and then to Republican Governor Kay Ivey.

State Rep. Juandalynn Givan (pictured) sponsored the legislation that makes state employees choose Juneteenth or Davis' birthday and called it a 'compromise' she didn't like but will live with

People march during a Juneteenth reparations rally on Broad Street on June 17, 2022 in Newark, New Jersey

Jefferson Davis (portraited) lived from 1808 to 1889 and led the Confederate states throughout the Civil War

Alabama state representative Juandalynn Givan and other black lawmakers have been lobbying for Juneteenth to become a holiday in Alabama for years. Juneteenth is already a federal holiday.

Givan told the Washington Post that she would have much preferred to have Juneteenth as a holiday full stop and not have the either-or compromise with Davis' birthday, which is already a state holiday.

'It was a compromise. Did we like it? No. But can we live with it? Yes. Are we hopeful for the future? Absolutely,' said Givan who sponsored the bill. 

Davis, a Mississippi Senator prior to his stint as president of the Confederacy, was captured by Union soldiers in Georgia in May 1865, roughly a month after Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia.

Several people aired their outrage on X at the compromise bill, with one saying Alabama was trying to appease 'both the rednecks and blacks' with this move.

Crews are seen removing one of the country's largest remaining monuments to the Confederacy, a towering statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia

It isn't clear if Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (pictured) would sign the bill. Still the bill needs to be introduced in the state senate before it gets to her desk

A Confederate flag flies on a 100 foot flagpole next to Interstate 65 near Verbena, Alabama, Sunday July 17, 2005

'Backwards state. Still celebrate the Confederacy & allows the giant confederate flag fly on I-65,' they wrote. 

Another person wrote: 'Alabama allows state workers to reveal that they're racist through choice of holidays.'

Somebody else told Alabama lawmakers to 'let go of the f**king slavery.'

The Montgomery Adviser published a lengthy gallery of photos in June 2020 ahead of Juneteenth showing all the places in Montgomery, Alabama where tributes to the Confederacy still exist.

A highway, a high school, and a street all bear Davis' name. There is also a painting of Davis in the state capitol building in Montgomery, and as recently as 2000, there was a star outside the building marking the exact spot where Davis was inaugurated as the Confederate president on February 18, 1861.

Several southern states including Alabama have Davis' birthday as an official state holiday, NPR reported. 

Robert E. Lee's birthday - January 19 - is very close to Martin Luther King Jr. Day and is also state holiday in Alabama and Mississippi.

Finally Confederate Memorial Day, which is supposed to celebrate fallen Confederate soldiers, is an official state holiday in Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas.