SB 3200: State Holiday; Immigrants Day; Statehood Day; Day of Recognition

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to culture.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the State rightly recognizes Native Hawaiian contributions to state culture and history, including through holidays, like Prince Jonah Kuhio Day Kalanianaole Day, on the twenty-sixth day in March, and King Kamehameha I Day, on the eleventh day in June.  However, the State does not reserve a day to recognize the significant contributions of immigrants and immigrant communities to the State's history and culture.

     The legislature further finds that hundreds of thousands of immigrants have come to the State since the mid-nineteenth century.  Beginning in 1852, more than fifty thousand Chinese laborers immigrated to the State.  In 1878, the first of more than sixteen thousand Portuguese immigrants started arriving.  More than two hundred thousand Japanese immigrants began arriving in 1885.  Korean immigrants, in their turn, began arriving in multiple waves starting in 1903.  Filipino immigrants started settling in the State in 1906, and by 1932, they formed the majority of laborers on local sugar plantations.  Numerous immigrants from many different nations have come to the islands and now call the State home and many individuals from those communities have gone on to contribute to the State and to the United States as the nation's first governors, state senators, and business and community leaders of foreign ancestries.

     The legislature finds that, while state history over the centuries includes many difficult periods of injustice, challenge, and conflict amongst everyone who has called the islands home, Native Hawaiian residents and immigrants from numerous nations have integrated and transformed the State into a remarkable melting pot where Polynesian, Asian, European, and American communities and cultures have converged and prospered together.  In 1959, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., addressed the state legislature and cited the State as "a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country, and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice".

     The legislature further finds that Statehood Day, recognized annually every third Friday in August, remains controversial due to generations of injustice that culminated in the federal government issuing the 1993 apology resolution for committing acts that "resulted in the suppression of the inherent sovereignty of the Native Hawaiian people".

     Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to:

     (1)  Recognize and celebrate the contributions of immigrants and immigrant communities to the State by establishing a new state holiday, to be known as Immigrants Day, that will coincide with National Immigrants Day, which is held annually on October 28; and

     (2)  Help heal injustices of the past by changing Statehood Day from a state holiday to a day of recognition observed annually on August 21.

     SECTION 2.  Chapter 8, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

     "§8-    Statehood Day.  The twenty-first day of August of each year shall be known and designated as "Statehood Day" to recognize and memorialize the annexation of the State as the fiftieth in the nation on August 21, 1959; provided that Statehood Day is not and shall not be construed to be a state holiday."

     SECTION 3.  Section 8-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "§8-1  Holidays designated.  The following days of each year are set apart and established as state holidays:

     The first day in January, New Year's Day;

     The third Monday in January, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day;

     The third Monday in February, Presidents' Day;

     The twenty-sixth day in March, Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Day;

     The Friday preceding Easter Sunday, Good Friday;

     The last Monday in May, Memorial Day;

     The eleventh day in June, King Kamehameha I Day;

     The fourth day in July, Independence Day;

     [The third Friday in August, Statehood Day;]

     The first Monday in September, Labor Day;

     The twenty-eighth day in October, Immigrants Day;

     The eleventh day in November, Veterans' Day;

     The fourth Thursday in November, Thanksgiving Day;

     The twenty-fifth day in December, Christmas Day;

     All election days, except primary and special election days, in the county wherein the election is held;

     Any day designated by proclamation by the President of the United States or by the governor as a holiday."

     SECTION 4.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Report Title:

State Holiday; Immigrants Day; Statehood Day; Day of Recognition

Description:

Establishes Immigrants Day as a state holiday that is held annually on October 28.  Changes Statehood Day from a state holiday to a day of recognition.

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