The Alabama Senate Committee on County and Municipal Government Tuesday unanimously approved a bill that would make Juneteenth a state holiday.

The bill will now move to the Senate for a full vote.

Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Montgomery, praised Rep. Rick Rehm, R-Dothan, for bringing forward HB165 and for calling her this week to discuss the bill’s importance.

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.

Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, told Rehm on Tuesday that she wanted to applaud him for representing “all of his constituents” despite questioning from House Democrats on why Rehm’s bill has gotten further than previous iterations.

“This is history because by doing this it also preserves history as it is,” Coleman-Madison said.

“Many of us do not celebrate the Fourth of July because we were not free on that day.”

Rehm previously said he understood where some frustrated lawmakers 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.

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.