Marietta mayor vetoes efforts to make Juneteenth a city holiday

MARIETTA, Ga. - A proposal to recognize Juneteenth as an official holiday came to an abrupt end in one metro Atlanta city on Wednesday night. 

Marietta's mayor vetoed city council's decision to recognize it as a paid holiday for city staff - causing some disappointment. 

"The city of Marietta just took a very solid step backwards," Attorney Gerald Griggs said after the veto. 

Mayor Steven Tumlin stated at the council meeting that Marietta doesn’t currently recognize Veterans Day as a city holiday, and he’s concerned about now recognizing Juneteenth over Veterans Day.

He said he'd "hate to do one and not the other." 

"I'm just throwing that out there about picking one over the other, especially one that's been on the books for 104 years," he told council after the veto. 

Councilman Griffin Chalfant agreed.

"I personally would like to see us go back and take both up at the same time," Chalfant said. 

FOX 5 spoke with Councilman Carlyle Kent. He was among the four who voted in favor of it against the three who voted no.

"I was always taught if you don’t know your history, you’re bound to repeat it," He said. 

The councilman ssaid he wasn't shocked by how the meeting ended.

"The conversations we've had leading up to the actual vote were pretty heated," he said. 

Juneteenth marks the day when Texas slaves learned they were free - more than two years after Lincoln's emancipation proclamation.

It recently became a federal, state, and Cobb County holiday.

"It shows a lack of solidarity," one resident told the board. "It shows a lack of inclusion." 

Another went on to say that she was "thoroughly disappointed in the vote tonight." 

Jeriene Bonner Grimes, the president of the Cobb County Chapter of the  NAACP said you can't compare Veterans Day to Juneteenth.

"People were sold on this Marietta Square. A lot of us deal with the history of that," she said. 

It recently became a federal, state, and Cobb County holiday.

"I grew up a military brat so i see the honor of it, but one does not go with the other. It never has, it never will," Grimes detailed.

An attempt to override the mayor's decision failed by one vote causing Councilwoman Cheryl Richardson, who spearheaded the proposal, to walk out.

"I will just say that this day will go down in the history of Marietta," she said as she was leaving out.

Richardson said that she plans to present the proposal again.