UPDATED: June 18, 2020, 2:45 p.m.
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Boston City Council is considering making Juneteenth a city holiday.
Juneteenth, which is a portmanteau of June and 19th, is when the last slaves were told they were free in 1865.
Boston City Councilor Julia Mejia said this move is important to begin to acknowledge the city's history of racism.
She references Boston's history as a city that has been "filled with lots racial tension and I think we have the opportunity to right the wrong by declaring this day a city holiday."
Mejia has sent a letter to Mayor Marty Walsh to make it an official paid city holiday.
At a press conference on Thursday, Mayor Walsh said that he supports it "wholeheartedly," but it would need to become a state law and that it would "add costs in the city because it's overtime."
"We would have to work it into all the contracts," Walsh said.
He said it wouldn't happen this year because they would need to work out those challenges.
WBZ NewsRadio's Jim McKay (@JimMacKayOnAir) reports
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