Some southern states are observing a holiday celebrating the Confederacy — one day after President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he would no longer recognize Indigenous Peoples Day alongside Columbus Day.
Every year in April, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi celebrate what is known as Confederate Memorial Day, which is only celebrated by a few states, that recognizes the 250,000 Confederate Soldiers who lost their lives, according to WHNT News. During the holiday, state offices including state courts and Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) are closed while federal offices and mail remain open.
Confederate Memorial Day became an annual state holiday in Alabama in 1901 to honor the deaths of Confederate soldiers on the day that Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered at Durham Station, North Carolina on April 26, 1866, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.
This negotiation is recognized as being the reason for ending “major hostilities in the Civil War,” the encyclopedia noted. Two weeks prior to Johnston’s surrender, Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, according to the Clarion Ledger. Johnston was still in the field with nearly 90,000 soldiers.
Although Confederate Memorial Day is celebrated across the South, different states recognize the holiday in their own ways.
Mississippi celebrates the confederate holiday on the last Monday in April while Alabama and Florida have it on the fourth Monday in April. Alabama treats it as an official holiday, the Clarion Ledger wrote.
Texas also celebrates Confederate Memorial Day as a state holiday, but the state recognizes the celebration on Jan. 19.
Meanwhile, North and South Carolina celebrate it on May 10, but state offices close only in South Carolina, according to the Clarion Ledger.
Kentucky and Tennessee honor the dead from the Civil War on June 3 and Tennessee calls it Confederate Decoration Day.
A bill was introduced in Mississippi in 2023 to drop Confederate Memorial Day and designate June 19 as Juneteenth Freedom Day but it was rejected, according to WHNT News.
The celebration of Confederate Memorial Day comes a day after Trump announced that he would no longer recognize Indigenous Peoples Day alongside Columbus Day, which is celebrated in October.
On Sunday, Trump accused Democrats of denigrating explorer Christopher Columbus’s legacy as he pressed his campaign to restore what he argues are traditional American icons.
Former president Joe Biden marked Indigenous Peoples Day by issuing a proclamation in 2021 that celebrated “the invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples” and recognize “their inherent sovereignty.”
The proclamation noted that America “was conceived on a promise of equality and opportunity for all people” but that promise “we have never fully lived up to. That is especially true when it comes to upholding the rights and dignity of the Indigenous people who were here long before colonization of the Americas began.”
Trump wrote on his Truth Social site that “I’m bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes” and that “the Democrats did everything possible to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all of the Italians that love him so much.”
The October holiday was known as Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day during Biden’s term. Activists have wanted to shift the focus from commemorating Columbus’ navigation to the Americans to his and his successors’ exploitation of the indigenous people he encountered there.
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