Jefferson Davis Birthday in United States

Jefferson Davis' Birthday commemorates the life and work of a United States president. ©iStockphoto.com/Tonya Thompson

What do people do?

Each year, Alabama celebrates Jefferson Davis's Birthday on the first Monday in June. In Florida it is a legal and public holiday on June 3. Other states, such as Kentucky, do not officially observe but informally celebrate the day around this time of the year.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans have proclaimed 2008, as the "Year of Jefferson Davis" and Davis' 200th birthday on June 3, 2008, will be celebrated with a variety of events including the reopening of his last home "Beauvoir" on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Beauvoir sustained severe damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Other events around this date include reunions for associations linked with Jefferson Davis; and the crowning of “Miss Confederacy” at the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site in Kentucky, where a concrete obelisk stands near the site of Davis' birthplace.

Public life

Jefferson Davis’ Birthday is a state holiday in Alabama and a legal, public holiday in Florida. Public offices are closed, as are schools and many businesses. However, in other areas of the United States, Jefferson Davis Day is not observed as a public holiday and public life is not affected.

Background

After serving in the Mexican War and serving as Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis was chosen twice to the US Senate, finishing neither term. When the Confederacy seceded from the Union, Davis was chosen as its leader. By popular vote on February 22, 1862, he became the only president of the Confederate States of America. Davis is considered by many to have mismanaged the Confederacy and its conduct of the Civil War. After fleeing the capital in Richmond near the end of the war, Davis was jailed for treason, and afterwards led the life of a business entrepreneur and author until he died at the age of 81 in 1889.

There are some links between Jefferson Davis’ birthday, Confederate Memorial Day and Memorial Day. By 1916, ten southern states marked June 3, which was Jefferson Davis's birthday, as Confederate Memorial Day. Mississippi observes Jefferson Davis’ Birthday in conjunction with the Memorial Day federal holiday on May 26.

Symbols

The Jefferson Davis National Highway in the United States and Jefferson Davis County in Mississippi were named in honor of Jefferson Davis. A 351-foot (107 m) tall concrete obelisk at the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site in Fairview, Todd County, Kentucky marks the site of his birth place in what was then Christian County, Kentucky. There are statues of Davis in many places in the United States, including the Alabama, Virginia and Kentucky State Capitols.

The Confederate flag is used by many to symbolize Jefferson Davis Day. It is defined as any of the flags used by the Confederate States of America. This includes: First National or Stars and Bars; Second National or Stainless Banner; Third National; Bonnie Blue Flag; Confederate Battle Flag; and the Confederate Naval Jack.

Jefferson Davis Birthday Observances

Other holidays in June 2008 in United States

• Statehood Day (Sunday, June 1, 2008)
• International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression (Wednesday, June 4, 2008)
• World Environment Day (Thursday, June 5, 2008)
• Shavuot (Monday, June 9, 2008)
• Kamehameha Day (Wednesday, June 11, 2008)
• Flag Day (Saturday, June 14, 2008)
• Father's Day (Sunday, June 15, 2008)
• Bunker Hill Day (Tuesday, June 17, 2008)
• World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought (Tuesday, June 17, 2008)
• Juneteenth (Thursday, June 19, 2008)
• June Solstice (Friday, June 20, 2008)
• West Virginia Day (Friday, June 20, 2008)
• World Refugee Day (Friday, June 20, 2008)
• Public Service Day (Monday, June 23, 2008)
• International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (Thursday, June 26, 2008)
• International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (Thursday, June 26, 2008)

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