Alabama only state that gives workers Davis’s birthday off

Alabama's State Capital Building
Alabama's State Capital Building(Redheadedhornet | Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Published: Jun. 5, 2023 at 12:05 PM CDT
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DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) - Three Alabama holidays commemorate Confederate leaders- one of them is Jefferson Davis’s birthday, observed Monday.

State offices are closed, as are many county offices that rely on the state’s computer systems, but most, if not all, municipalities are open.

The federal government is operating normally, and banks are open.

Alabama is the only state remaining that gives state workers Davis’s birthday a day off.

Alabama also commemorates Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E Lee’s birthday on the same day in January set aside to honor civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior.

Alabama House Minority Leader Chris England launched an effort in 2020 to abolish the Jefferson Davis holiday.

“We should not give Davis, a traitor and racist who lived in our state for less than a year, his own state holiday,” England wrote in a letter to Governor Kay Ivey.

A Google search reveals no special events planned for Davis’s birthday in Alabama.

However, a birthday celebration in Mississippi was held Sunday at Beauvoir, the Confederate president’s Biloxi home.

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