Pennsylvania and Juneteenth
The story of how Pennsylvania came to formally recognize Juneteenth is a story of family, advocacy, and the long work of civic commitment. It took 154 years from June 19, 1865 to the Governor's desk in 2019.
How Pennsylvania Came to Recognize Juneteenth
Pennsylvania communities have celebrated Juneteenth for generations. But formal state recognition took much longer. Texas became the first state to officially recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday in 1980. Pennsylvania's recognition came nearly four decades later, through the sustained advocacy of community leaders and the legislative work of Representative Sue Helm.
Pennsylvania's recognition of Juneteenth did not happen overnight. It was the product of sustained advocacy by community leaders, legislators, and supporters who understood that formal recognition matters, that naming a day as a holiday is an act of civic affirmation.
Act 9 of 2019
House Bill 619, enacted as Act 9 of 2019, established Juneteenth as an official Pennsylvania state holiday, the result of years of community advocacy, civic leadership, and cross-partisan cooperation.
The Road to Passage
Representative Sue Helm of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives was a central figure in shepherding House Bill 619 through the legislature. Her relationship with Stan Lawson and his sister Carolyn Mills (Nee Lawson) helped build the bipartisan trust that made passage possible.
Carolyn Mills (Nee Lawson) passed away in October 2018, before the legislation was signed into law. But her advocacy, and her commitment to recognition, helped lay the foundation for its eventual passage. Act 9 of 2019 stands, in part, as a tribute to her work.
At the time of signing, Representative Helm noted that while numerous states had adopted resolutions recognizing Juneteenth, Pennsylvania's Act 9 represented one of the earliest efforts to codify that recognition through formal state law, not merely a resolution, but a statute.
The signing ceremony brought together Governor Tom Wolf, Representative Sue Helm, Stanley Lawson, and community members who had worked toward this moment for years.
Representative Sue Helm Reflects on the Journey
In her own words, Representative Sue Helm describes how she met Stan Lawson, how Carolyn Mills (Nee Lawson) walked into her Capitol office with a singular request, and how Pennsylvania became the second state in the nation to make Juneteenth a holiday.
In Her Own Words
Representative Sue Helm, 104th Legislative District, Pennsylvania House of Representatives
"When she walked in the office, she said, 'Before I die, I want Juneteenth National Freedom Day to become a law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.' And we worked on that for several years, and Carolyn was relentless. I was relentless. Stan was relentless."
- On Carolyn Mills (Nee Lawson) walking into her Capitol office
"On June 19th, 2019, Juneteenth National Freedom Day became law. It was House Bill 619, and it was Act Nine."
- On the signing of Act 9 of 2019
"A lot of people really think that if Pennsylvania, which was the second state to make Juneteenth a holiday, that it would not have become a national holiday."
- On Pennsylvania's role in the path to federal recognition
"Carolyn Mills, Stan Lawson, thank you. You really did a great job, a nice service, helped me get that bill through, and now we're celebrating Juneteenth National Freedom Day."
- Closing remarks
The Lawson Legacy
Three siblings. Born in Harrisburg, they moved to the Edgemont neighborhood where their family built a community. Their combined work across decades and state lines helped bring Juneteenth from a community observance to the law of the Commonwealth.
Stanley R. Lawson Sr.
1941 – 2025 | Civic Pioneer | Pennsylvania Juneteenth Advocate
Stanley R. Lawson Sr. was born in Harrisburg and moved with his family to the Edgemont neighborhood, where his father James W. Lawson Sr. had built a network of African American-owned businesses including Lawson's Grocery, Lawson's Palace, and the Wishing Well Motel. Stan built his own home down the street from the grocery and raised his family there. He came of age surrounded by that tradition of community investment and carried it into a life of public service.
A U.S. Navy veteran and lifelong Republican, Stan spent more than five decades breaking racial and institutional barriers across Harrisburg and Central Pennsylvania. He became the first African American elected to Harrisburg City Council in 1969, the first African American Vice President of Harrisburg City Council, the first African American Chairman of the Dauphin County Republican Committee, the first African American President of the Susquehanna Township Board of Commissioners, and the first African American State President of AFSCME Council 13. He also served as the longest-tenured NAACP President in Pennsylvania history.
Those political relationships mattered when it came time to move Juneteenth legislation. Stan's decades of work across party lines, in labor, in local government, and in civic organizations gave him access to the Capitol relationships that legislation requires. When Carolyn brought the Juneteenth cause to Representative Sue Helm's office, Stan was there to support it. His presence at the Act 9 signing ceremony alongside Governor Tom Wolf and Representative Helm was not ceremonial. It was the result of years of sustained advocacy built on a lifetime of public trust.
First African American elected to Harrisburg City Council (1969)
First African American Vice President of Harrisburg City Council
First African American Chairman, Dauphin County Republican Committee
First African American President, Susquehanna Township Board of Commissioners
First African American State President, AFSCME Council 13
Longest-serving NAACP President in Pennsylvania history
Carolyn Mills (Nee Lawson)
née Lawson | Champion of Recognition
Carolyn Mills (Nee Lawson) was born in Harrisburg and moved with her family to the Edgemont neighborhood alongside her brothers Stanley and Gary. She became the most direct force behind Pennsylvania's Juneteenth legislation. It was Carolyn who walked into Representative Sue Helm's Capitol office and said, in Helm's own words: "Before I die, I want Juneteenth National Freedom Day to become a law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."
Carolyn passed away in October 2018, months before Act 9 was signed on June 19, 2019. She did not live to see the bill become law. But her conviction set the effort in motion, and Representative Helm has credited her by name as essential to its passage. Act 9 of 2019 stands, in part, as a tribute to her.
Gary Lawson
Born in Harrisburg | Iowa Juneteenth Observance Founder
Gary Lawson was born in Harrisburg and moved with his family to the Edgemont neighborhood. He later relocated to Iowa, where in 1990 he founded the Iowa Juneteenth Observance. Over the following decade he built it into one of the most recognized state-level Juneteenth commemorations in the country. Iowa officially recognized Juneteenth as a state holiday in 2002, more than a decade before federal recognition.
Gary's work in Iowa demonstrated what sustained community advocacy could accomplish. His model of organized, persistent civic engagement informed the approach his siblings brought back to Pennsylvania. The path from Harrisburg to Iowa and back again is a thread that runs through the entire Juneteenth recognition story.
From Edgemont to Iowa to the Governor's Desk
All three Lawson siblings were born in Harrisburg and moved to the Edgemont neighborhood, where their father built a community anchor through his businesses. Gary eventually relocated to Iowa and built a Juneteenth observance that became a state holiday in 2002. Carolyn stayed in Pennsylvania and spent years pushing for the same recognition at home. Stan used his political relationships, built over five decades of public service, to help move the legislation through the Capitol.
When Representative Sue Helm introduced House Bill 619, she had Stan Lawson's network behind her. When Governor Tom Wolf signed Act 9 on June 19, 2019, making Pennsylvania the second state in the nation to recognize Juneteenth as an official holiday, the Lawson family's decades of work across two states converged at a single moment.
Pennsylvania's early recognition is widely credited with building the national momentum that led to federal recognition in 2021. The Lawson family's contribution to that outcome began in a neighborhood in Harrisburg.
"Carolyn Mills, Stan Lawson, thank you. You really did a great job, a nice service, helped me get that bill through, and now we're celebrating Juneteenth National Freedom Day."
Representative Sue Helm, 104th Legislative District
Pennsylvania's Juneteenth Story Continues
Find Juneteenth events across Pennsylvania, explore the national history, and join the statewide coalition.