Norwich and New London city councils were criticized Monday night for holding business meetings on Juneteenth, which became a state holiday this year, with one New London councilor refusing to participate.

Last June, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill last making Juneteenth, already a federal holiday, an official state holiday starting this year.

Juneteenth, which is held on June 19, marks the date in 1865 when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger informed enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, that President Lincoln had declared them to be free some two years earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation.

Minutes after the New London City Council convened on Monday night, Councilor Akil Peck excused himself from the proceedings citing the incongruity of holding such a meeting on Juneteenth.

Peck, invoking a "point of personal privilege," noted councilors earlier in the evening had celebrated the accomplishments of several local Black business owners.

"I'm thankful we're honoring the small Black-owned businesses here today for Juneteenth; I think it's fitting," he said. "However, I do not think it's fitting that we're here conducting city business on Juneteenth."

Peck praised Mayor Michael Passero's decision to close City Hall on Monday to commemorate the new state holiday.

"So, I have to stand for something or otherwise I just go along with everyone else," Peck said. "I feel in my heart it's the right thing to do to excuse myself from this meeting in honor of Juneteenth."

In Norwich, city offices remained open Monday, and the City Council held its regular Monday meeting, including two public hearings, eight resolutions and an executive session on real estate matters pertaining to an application for a waterfront development grant.

Norwich resident Shiela Hayes, former president of the Norwich branch of the NAACP and longtime Norwich civil rights advocate, asked the City Council why the city did not close city offices and recognize the holiday, as New London did Monday. She said she found it disappointing since Norwich prides itself that city officials worked with the NAACP in 1989 to become the first city in Connecticut to hold a Juneteenth celebration.

“The disappointment today was that this was not recognized by the city of Norwich as being a holiday, national and state,” Hayes said.

Resident Valerie Gambrell complained that the council held a meeting on Juneteenth, while the agenda included a proposed resolution to cancel the council’s July 3 meeting.

“And you wonder why you do not get participation from certain people in this community,” Gambrell said. “Because we feel you guys don’t consider us or think about us.”

The Norwich council later rejected the idea of canceling the July 3 meeting.

Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom said declaring city holidays is not the council’s or mayor’s prerogative but the city manager’s authority. City Manager John Salomone was not at Monday’s meeting and was not available for comment Tuesday on the complaints about not recognizing Juneteenth.

Nystrom said setting city holidays involves negotiations with collective bargaining units representing city employees, and Salomone has met with unions to discuss Juneteenth. Nystrom said the negotiations could involve trading Juneteenth for another city holiday, rather than adding a holiday. Nystrom said the needs of the taxpayers have to be considered as well.

“I can’t change what happened today,” Hayes said. “Going forward, I’d like to know what are the plans of this city to make Juneteenth a city holiday in 2024?”

New London City Council honors Black business owners at Juneteenth meeting

New London resident and business owner Seanice Austin, lauded for her work in promoting financial literacy in the region, was one of three Black small business owners presented with City of New London certificates of appreciation on Monday. Austin, a licensed financial coach, said the timing of the award presentation was not lost on her, and she implored the city to "do more."

Austin acknowledged the important contributions of her "very worthy" fellow awardees but called the night's honors largely "performative."

"It's not missed on me that this certificate was given on Juneteenth," she said during the public comment portion of the meeting. "And I really don't want the city to feel as though they have done something for this day."

Austin said her decision to enter the wealth-building field was directly influenced by the plight of those emancipated slaves ― the same individuals honored by the Juneteenth holiday ― who were freed 160 years ago "without any economic base in this country."

"So, what can this city do?" she asked. "Every city in this country was part of the Jim Crow, disenfranchisement, economic lock-out of the descendants of American slavery. So, each and every one of us in the city needs to be part of the reparative justice."

Austin said she's a proponent of formalizing financial literacy programs in the city's middle and high schools ― she created such programs as part of her former work as head of diversity and inclusion at the University of Connecticut's School of Business ― and called for revisiting the city's decision to demolish the Crystal Avenue high-rise apartment buildings last year.

"Did we do the right thing by the people that lived there?" she asked. "I would wager we did not."

Council President Reona Dyess said she appreciated Austin's comments and passion for restorative justice.

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