Bill would end Confederate Heroes Day in Texas
Four years after he made headlines as the Austin middle schooler who made eliminating Confederate Heroes Day his cause, Jacob Hale returned to the Texas House Thursday in support of a bill he helped inspire.
House Bill 1183, authored by Rep. Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, would eliminate Confederate Heroes Day from the list of state holidays an agency can observe.
“When you’re dealing with a holiday that is significant to history, you have to do your best to make sure that it is not offensive to one group or another, and I think this Confederate Heroes Day obviously is in itself offensive to many of the people who are on the other side,” Johnson told the American-Statesman.
Hale said he noticed that the holiday, which is designated as January 19, sometimes coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which occurs on the third Monday of January — as it did in 2015.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190418/bill-would-end-confederate-heroes-day-in-texas