The City of Dallas will likely temporarily fly a Juneteenth flag at City Hall later this month in place of the Pride flag that was raised on June 1.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the City raised a Pride flag emblazoned with the official City of Dallas logo Thursday at City Hall to commemorate Pride Month.
However, that flag will likely be replaced with a Juneteenth flag from June 16 to 19 this year, per a City resolution that has yet to be enacted.
The Workforce, Education, and Equity Committee recommended the resolution to the full City Council during a Monday meeting.
Council members will vote on the resolution, developed by Council Member Carolyn King Arnold, during its next meeting on June 14.
While Juneteenth has long been celebrated in Dallas and throughout Texas, 2023 would be the first year the City observed the holiday with an official flag.
Meanwhile, the City has flown a Pride flag at City Hall since 2020.
Council Member Omar Narvaez spoke in favor of the resolution on Monday and motioned to send it to the full council. Narvaez also spoke at Thursday’s Pride flag ceremony.
Narvaez said discussions of raising an official Juneteenth flag began when President Biden made it an official federal holiday in 2021, but raising the Juneteenth flag was not done immediately because of the Pride flag.
Furthermore, he said “other people in the LGBTQ+ community” support flying the Juneteenth flag.
“We want to make sure that our LGBTQIA+ sisters and brothers that are black and African American … know that we see them and that we will honor them,” he said.
Following this year’s presumed Juneteenth flag raising, the flag will fly at City Hall from June 18 to June 20 in subsequent years should the City Council approve the resolution.
Juneteenth — celebrated June 19 — marks the anniversary of Union troops delivering news of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to Galveston Bay in 1865, essentially freeing the last enslaved people in the former Confederacy.
The holiday has been celebrated in various forms by African American communities and Texans since the late 1800s.
In 1872, four former slaves purchased a 10-acre plot in Houston, named the land Emancipation Park, and used the location to host annual Juneteenth festivities.
Texas officially recognized Juneteenth as a holiday in 1980, but the observance of Juneteenth has spread across the nation in recent years.