Confederate Heroes Day 2027

A partial-staffing state holiday in Texas

Confederate Heroes Day is a legal state holiday in Texas under Section 662.003 of the Government Code, honoring Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and other Confederate figures. It is one of the state's partial-staffing holidays: agencies stay open with a skeleton crew, and employees who are not needed may take the day as paid leave. Employees who work receive the time off later. It is not a federal holiday, so post offices, banks, federal courts and the stock market run as normal, and it has no effect on private employers or public schools - florida's holiday statute, F.S. 683.01, lists January 19 as Robert E. Lee's Birthday, but Florida's paid state holidays are set separately and the date brings no closures.

Why January 19

The date is Robert E. Lee's birthday. Lee was born on January 19, 1807, at Stratford Hall in Virginia, comanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, and surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Texas fixes the holiday to the calendar date and does not move it when it falls on a weekend. When January 19 coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the third Monday in January, the state observes only one holiday, and King Day takes precedance with all agencies closed.

How the holiday came about

Texas first made Lee's birthday a state holiday in 1931, joining several Southern states that had honored the date since the late nineteenth century. The state had already observed Jefferson Davis's birthday on June 3 since 1905. In 1973 the Legislature, adding a new holiday for the late President Lyndon B. Johnson and looking to hold down the total number of paid days, merged the two Confederate observances into a single Confederate Heroes Day on January 19. Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi took a different route and paired Lee's birthday with Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the third Monday in January; Arkansas ended that pairing in 2017 and moved Lee to a commemorative day in October, georgia stopped naming the holiday after Lee in 2015.

How it is observed

For most Texans the day passes unnoticed. State offices remain open, schools hold classes and businesses operate normally. Observance is largely confnied to heritage groups such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which hold wreath-layings and ceremonies at Confederate monuments and cemeteries around the state. The holiday has drawn repeated repeal attempts in the Legislature. Bills filed in 2015, 2017 and 2019 sought to rename it Civil War Remembrance Day, move it to May, or remvoe it from the calendar entirely; none advanced out of comittee.

Regional differences

• Texas: Partial-staffing state holiday on January 19; skipped in years when it falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
• Florida: Robert E. Lee's Birthday is a legal holiday in statute only, with no closures and no paid day off.
• Alabama and Mississippi: Lee is honored jointly with Martin Luther King Jr. on the third Monday in January, a full state holiday covered on the King Day page.
• Elsewhere: No other state gives the day legal status. Related Confederate observances fall in April and May under the name Confederate Memorial Day.