MS celebrates Jefferson Davis' birthday as a state holiday. What to know on Memorial Day
It's the third of three Confederate holidays on the state calendar, starting with a celebration of Robert E. Lee and Martin Luther King Jr. in February and Confederate Memorial Day in April.
Here's what you need to know about when and why Mississippi celebrates Confederate holidays and what other states still honor them.
Davis was born in Kentucky on June 3, 1808, but Mississippi pairs it with Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. The president of the Confederacy spent most of his life in the Magnolia State and served it in both houses of the U.S. Congress.
The Davis family moved to the Mississippi Territory in 1812. In 1824, he graduated from West Point, the U.S. Military Academy and served in the U.S. Army, according to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Davis settled near family near Vicksburg, planted cotton and owned slaves in Warren County.
In 1845, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and resigned in less than a year to fight with the Mississippi Rifles in the Mexican War. In 1847, he was wounded and later was appointed to fill a seat in the U.S. Senate.
In 1851, he resigned to run for governor of Mississippi but did not win. He campaigned for Franklin Pierce and served as the president's secretary of war.
He was re-elected to the Senate in 1857.
He resigned and announced Mississippi was seceding from the Union four years later.
By October of 1861, he was president of the Confederate States of America.
After Lee surrendered, Davis and his family ran but were later captured. He was held on treason charges for two years. The federal government dropped charges against him in 1869.
By 1877, he moved to Beauvoir in Biloxi and died in New Orleans in 1889.
The Biloxi building now serves as a presidential library. It's open daily and offers tours. The organization that maintains it will celebrate his 217th birthday on Saturday, May 31, with a showing of Shirley Temple's "The Littlest Rebel" and a Mississippi Rifles Honor Salute. Admission is $15 per person, and movie tickets cost another $2.
Alabama also has a state holiday for Confederate President Jefferson Davis on the first Monday in June. In Florida, it's a local observance, according to timeanddate.com, but not an official state holiday that offices and schools or businesses would close for.
Sitting with history: Mississippi senator uses Jefferson Davis' desk in US Congress today
Yes. There were multiple bills to remove Lee's birthday and Confederate Memorial Day from the state calendar in the most recent regular session of the Mississippi Legislature.
None were successful.
Two U.S. states honor Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on the federal holiday for Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is always scheduled to take place on the third Monday in January. President Ronald Regan signed the bill creating the holiday into federal law in 1983. It was first observed in 1986.
King was born on Jan. 15, 1929.
When the federal holiday was adopted in the 1980s, Mississippi and Alabama lawmakers opted to add it to an existing holiday honoring Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Many states in the South initially adopted this approach. Most, including Lee's home state of Virginia, have since dropped celebrating Lee, who was born on Jan. 19, 1807.
Mississippi celebrated Confederate Memorial Day on Monday, April 28, this year. Only four states still honor the Civil War dead with a day off for public workers, though others still treat it as a holiday.
The Magnolia State takes it a step further and celebrates April as Confederate Heritage Month.
Confederate Memorial Day was created in Georgia on April 26, 1866. It honored the deaths of Confederate soldiers on the first anniversary of the day that Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee to Union Gen. William Sherman at Bennett Place, North Carolina.
Many in the Confederacy felt that negotiation marked the end of the Civil War. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant two weeks earlier at Appomattox Court House, but Johnston stayed in the field with almost 90,000 soldiers.
The holiday spread to the other Confederate states. Some changed their celebration dates to something more locally significant.
In Alabama and Florida, it's on the fourth Monday in April. Alabama treats it as an official holiday.
Texas celebrates it as a state holiday on Jan. 19.
North and South Carolina celebrate on May 10, but state offices close only in South Carolina.
June 3 is when Kentucky and Tennessee honor the dead from the Civil War, and Tennessee calls it Confederate Decoration Day.
No. Mississippi does not honor Juneteenth, though it is a federal holiday.
Juneteenth is a federal holiday that honors June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Texas were set free. The order for the state came about two and a half years after the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation.
Many state holidays in Mississippi sync up with federal holidays, but not all of them, according to the list from the Department of Finance and Administration.
Wednesday, Jan. 1: New Year's Day.
Monday, Jan. 20: Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert E. Lee.
Monday, Feb. 17: Washington's Birthday.
Monday, April 28: Confederate Memorial Day.
Monday, May 26: National Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis' birthday.
Friday, July 4: Independence Day.
Monday, Sept. 1: Labor Day.
Tuesday, Nov. 11: Veterans Day or Armistice Day.
Thursday, Nov. 27: Thanksgiving Day.
Thursday, Dec. 25: Christmas Day.
Here are the federal holidays in 2025, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management:
Wednesday, Jan. 1: New Year's Day.
Monday, Jan. 20: Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and Inauguration Day.
Monday, Feb. 17: Washington's Birthday.
Monday, May 26: Memorial Day.
Thursday, June 19: Juneteenth National Independence Day.
Friday, July 4: Independence Day.
Monday, Sept. 1: Labor Day.
Monday, Oct. 13: Columbus Day.
Tuesday, Nov. 11: Veterans Day.
Thursday, Nov. 27: Thanksgiving Day.
Thursday, Dec. 25: Christmas Day.
Bonnie Bolden is the Deep South Connect reporter for Mississippi with Gannett/USA Today. Email her at bbolden@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi honors Confederate president on Memorial Day. What to know
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