For the first time in more than 100 years, Lee-Jackson Day will not officially be celebrated in Virginia.
The holiday, which was observed on the Friday before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January, celebrated Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson as “defenders of causes.” The event typically involved Civil War-themed parades, wreath layings and reenactments hosted by Confederate memorial groups.
Last February, state lawmakers in Virginia passed a bill that would swap the holiday honoring the Confederate generals for Election Day.
The bill was among Gov. Ralph Northam 2020 legislative proposals.
“We need to make Election Day a holiday,” he said last year. “We can do it by ending the Lee-Jackson holiday that Virginia holds … It commemorates a lost cause. It’s time to move on.”
Defenders of the holiday argue that it honors Virginia history.
Lee-Jackson Day Lexington Virginia 2020 and 2021
