Sullivan commissioner says Juneteenth a 'woke holiday'

A Sullivan County Commissioner said he would not support making Juneteenth a county holiday because he said it is a "woke holiday.""I think Juneteenth is a woke holiday, and we shouldn't give these people an inch," Commissioner Joe Carr, who is from Kingsport, said Thursday night.The commission voted 17-4 with three absent at the County Commission's regularly scheduled business meeting. Voting no were Carr, Hershel Glover, Joe McMurray and Jessica Means.The resolution was previously placed on the consent agenda, a portion of voting which is usually routine and is not controversial. But when Sullivan County Mayor Richard Venable asked if any items should be taken off, Carr objected to the Juneteenth holiday resolution.The resolution states that it would make Juneteenth a county holiday to align with the federal holiday.Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19, commemorates the emancipation of African-Americans. It coincides with the day that U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and declared all slaves free. It was the last standout of slavery in the South after the Civil War.But Carr alluded to recent events for his opposition to the resolution, citing the protests that occurred just weeks ago in Nashville that led to two Black state representatives from Nashville and Memphis being ousted from the Legislature.A third legislator, Gloria Jackson from Knoxville, survived the ouster.The legislators took part in protests concerning the shooting of three 9-year-old children and three adults."No one in Sullivan County is in favor of this, almost nobody," Carr said. "The only people this is going to please is the same people that were in Nashville, in our Capitol, causing an insurrection and assaulting state troopers. So I'm voting 'no' on this."