Barack Obama Day in Perry County, Alabama

In central Alabama’s Perry County, government workers already get a day off for President’s Day, Martin Luther King Day, and Veterans Day. In 2009, they got one more: "Barack Obama Day."

The rural county, which overwhelmingly supported Obama presidential election, has approved the second Monday in November as "The Barack Obama Day." Commissioners passed a measure that would close county offices for the new annual holiday and its roughly 40 workers will get a paid day off.

Sponsoring commissioner Albert Turner Jr. said the holiday is meant to highlight the Democratic president-elect’s victory as a way to give people faith that difficult goals can be achieved.

Perry County has 12,000 residents, most of them black. Voters there backed Obama by over 70 percent in a state that gave 60 percent of the overall vote to Republican John McCain based largely on strong support from white voters.

Source: usatoday.com | cbsnews.com | perrycountyal.org

In 2024 Barack Obama Day in Perry County, Alabama in USA falls on November 11.