Brown County Commissioners on Wednesday reversed a recent decision, renaming a new paid holiday for county employees for the Juneteenth federal holiday on which it falls. The decision is believed to make Brown County the first county in Indiana to officially observe the Juneteenth holiday.
Commissioners recently established June 19, 2025, as “Brown County Employee Appreciation Day,” but that day also is the Juneteenth holiday, which celebrates the official end of slavery in the United States. The day has been observed as a federal holiday since 2021 and marks the occasion when the last slaves were freed in 1865 in Texas, nearly two years after Emancipation was made the law of the land.
The commissioners’ earlier decision to grant county employees a paid holiday on Juneteenth but call it something else had prompted opposition. Commissioners president Jerry Pitman said during Wednesday’s meeting, “We want to back up and we want to correct that … so I’m going to entertain a motion to alter the holiday calendar … and go back and revise that and put Juneteenth on there as a Brown County recognized holiday.”
Commissioner Ron Sanders made that motion, and in the process offered an apology to about 20 people who attended the meeting.
“I want to say that I personally apologize to anybody that was offended from this,” he said. “…We’re not perfect up here. We make mistakes. And obviously, we made a big one here.”
Commissioners unanimously revised the calendar for next year to observe Juneteenth as a paid holiday — a vote that was applauded by those who attended Wednesday’s meeting.
Among them was Eunice Trotter, director of the Black Heritage Program at Indiana Landmarks in Indianapolis. Trotter said after the meeting she was pleasantly surprised by the commissioners’ reconsideration of marking the Juneteenth holiday.
“I just applaud you, and I thank you,” Trotter told commissioners, later noting that the decision makes Brown County “I believe the first county in Indiana to do this. … That word really should get out because this is really something significant, what you’ve done today.”
Trotter provided a presentation on research into black heritage — including in Brown County — which she said had at least 23 African American residents in 1840, according to census data.
She said those numbers began to decline in later decades, in large part due to state laws prior to the Civil War that drove black people from the state. She also noted there’s ample evidence of black heritage in Brown County, but more research is needed to uncover that history.
“Juneteenth celebrates not only the emancipation of African Americans, but of this nation,” Trotter said. “Thousands of white people were killed over this issue of slavery. … This is a celebration not just for African Americans but for our entire nation.”
Look for more on this story in the Oct. 9 edition of The Democrat.
