On Monday, June 19, City offices will be closed for Mesquite’s first official recognition of the Juneteenth holiday.
The Mesquite City Council adopted Juneteenth as a City holiday last July as part of the 2022-23 annual budget. City offices will be closed, and many City services will not be available.
Juneteenth, a combination of the words June and nineteenth, was officially recognized as a federal holiday in 2021. Juneteenth has been celebrated locally in Texas since the 1860s and became an official holiday in the Lone Star State in 1980.
Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, were informed of their freedom -- more than two months after the end of the Civil War and two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963. Juneteenth is also known as Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, and Jubilee Day.
Mesquite Metro Airport and Recreation Centers will remain open on June 19. City of Mesquite closures and service impacts on June 19 include:
- All City offices and facilities closed.
- Compost Facility and Convenience Center closed.
- No trash or recycling collected. Collection will resume on residents’ next scheduled collection day.
- Both libraries closed.
- Mesquite Animal Shelter closed.
- Mesquite Arts Center closed.
- Keep Mesquite Beautiful offices closed.
- Florence Ranch Homestead and Opal Lawrence Historical Park closed.