Mayor makes Friday, June 19, a city holiday to honor fight for racial justice; says more vouchers in mid-July

Midway Mayor Grayson Vandegrift is making Friday, June 19, a city holiday to honor those who have fought for racial justice, he announced in his regular update today.

Many African Americans observe June 19 as "Juneteenth," the day that a Union general who had just occupied Texas announced that in accordance with Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, "All slaves are free."

Vandegrift said, "We have to keep finding ways to remind each other of the racial inequities that still exist. Slavery ended, but oppression and systematic racism did not," even after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. "We're getting better, but we are still so far away, and to honor all those who have struggled in the fight . . . we have to do more.

Vandegrift said the holiday means that city offices will be closed and city employees won't be working but will be paid. He told the Messenger that when June 19 falls on a weekend, the holiday will be the day closest to June 19.

"While this is not an earth-shattering step," he said in the update, "it's important that we remember that just one hundred fifty-five years ago, black Americans were literally held in chains for nothing more than the color of their skin."

Other topics: Vandegrift said the next round of Midway Bucks vouchers that can be spent at local, non-franchised businesses to help them get through the pandemic will probably go out in mid-July. "We need to make sure that the current vouchers get out of circulation, so to speak," he said. "You've got to spend them by June 30."

The mayor asked that residents consider going to a shop, perhaps one they have not visited before, to spend vouchers. "Some shops really haven't had a cut of the pie at all yet, and that's what we were hoping to avoid," he said. "We've had two shops close already during this pandemic. I'm afraid more will follow if we can't help them. Any bit helps, so please spread your money around as best you can."

Vandegrift began weekly updates on the pandemic March 18, and is shifting to every other week, but he said the coronavirus is "a reality that we live with and will be living with for some time."

"We definitely need to disabuse ourselves of the motions of having a normal summer, but that doesn't mean we have to have a bad summer," he said, noting that more relaxations of restrictions are planned for June 29.

He said social distancing and masks are the best way to keep the virus from spreading, and called for special attention to protecting people with underlying medical conditions and over 60. "There are even signs that people in their 40s need to be worried," he said.

Vandegrift opened his update by expressing condolences to the family of U.S. Rep Andy Barr, whose wife Carol died suddenly at their Lexington home Tuesday night. "It reminds us of how precious life truly is, and how important it is that we love one another."