The Alabama House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday that would make Juneteenth a state holiday.

HB165, sponsored by Rep. Rick Rehm, R-Abbeville, passed by a vote of 85 ayes and 4 nays.

Juneteenth, or June 19, commemorates the day upon which Black slaves learned of their emancipation in 1865.

Former President Joe Biden signed a bill in 2021 recognizing the day as a federal holiday.

And Gov. Kay Ivey has declared it a state holiday each year since.

Democratic lawmakers have attempted to pass similar bills in the Alabama legislature but have been unsuccessful, as several representatives pointed out Thursday.

“There’s something wrong with that,” said Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham.

“A good bill ought to be a good bill, no matter who carries it.”

Rep. Napoleon Bracy, Jr., D-Saraland, agreed, and said the data proving that the state could accommodate an extra holiday has been established for years.

“It feels like we’ve been running this race and now we’re passing it over to somebody else to cross the finish line,” Bracy said.

Rehm said he understood where Moore and Bracy were coming from and added that he had largely been driven by his constituents to file this legislation in his first term.

“To me this is a very important holiday that’s recognized,” he said Thursday.

The legislation will move to the Senate for consideration.

Under the initial version of Rehm’s bill state employees would have also been given the option to observe either Jefferson Davis’ birthday or Juneteenth.

But it was amended early on to delete this provision.

Jefferson Davis was the former president of the Confederate States which fought to preserve slavery during the Civil War.