In a unanimous vote on July 1, 2019, the City Council of Charlottesville, Virginia, established a new city holiday, Liberation and Freedom Day, to be celebrated on March 3.
Union Army troops, under the command of Major General Philip Sheridan, arrived in Charlottesville on March 3, 1865, liberating over 14,000 enslaved workers.
By a 4–1 vote, the city council decided that the April 13 birthday of Thomas Jefferson, founder of the University of Virginia, would no longer be an official holiday in the city of Charlottesville.
[2][3] The university has built a Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, honoring the contributions of slaves who helped build and maintain the school.
[4] "The memorial was recommended by a commission convened in 2013 to study slavery and the university.