On Jan. 19 annually, state workers in Texas get the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day off, with pay, to celebrate āConfederate Heroes Day.ā The state requires agencies to keep āskeleton crewsā so that they are operational on the holiday, unlike some others, including MLK Day, when state officers are closed.
The state holiday was created less than a decade after the federal signing of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.
Some Southern states this year removed Confederate symbols, statues and monikers that they had long resisted calls to disband.
So, removing Confederate Heroes Day is not erasing history.
According to the Texas Tribune, other states that observe āConfederate Heroes Dayā as a holiday are: Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia.