The History of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday - Martin Luther King Jr. may have fathered the Civil Rights Movement, but history reveals that turning his Jan. 15 birthday into a national holiday took struggle and persistence. The fact that King was a private citizen and not an elected official made some members of Congress question whether he was prominent enough to deserve a holiday. Other legislators argued that another paid federal holiday would be too expensive. And others believed some of King’s radical ideas and alleged ties to communists made him an inappropriate subject for a holiday.
Despite the controversy surrounding a proposed Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, history was made in 1983 when legislation establishing the day passed. Discover who the key players were in creating a day in celebration of King, the lawmakers who resisted such a holiday and the states which took the longest to recognize King’s legacy.
Martin Luther King Jr.
The Persistence of John Conyers
It took just four days after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination before someone suggested making his birthday a federal holiday. U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich) proposed such legislation on April 8, 1968, but Congress chose not to move the holiday legislation forward. Year after year, Conyers introduced the same legislation to no avail. By 1971, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference contributed to the effort to make the slain civil rights leader’s birthday a national holiday. SCLC collected three million signatures from citizens who supported a King holiday, but Congress still chose not to act on the proposed bill.
In 1979, Congress finally moved the holiday bill forward, but the legislation failed to garner five votes needed to make it law. The diligence of Conyers; King’s widow, Coretta Scott King; the Congressional Black Conference; and millions of supporters finally saw dividends in 1983. Then, 15 years after King’s death, more than 100 groups participated in a conference taking place to mark the 19th anniversary of the March on Washington. The conference led to a coalition forming that would lobby for a holiday in King’s honor. Musician Stevie Wonder, who had recorded the 1980 hit single “Happy Birthday” to advocate for a King holiday, donated funds to open a lobbying office in Washington D.C. In the subsequent months, Wonder and Coretta Scott King would present a petition to Speaker Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.) with six million signatures backing a King holiday. The result? Both the House and the Senate passed the King holiday legislation, which President Ronald Reagan signed into law on Nov. 2, 1983.
The King Holiday’s Opposition
In the House, the bill passed by a vote of 338 to 90, and in the Senate it passed by a vote of 78 to 22. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) was among the most prominent Republicans to oppose the King holiday bill. Helms wondered if King was a prominent enough figure to deserve a holiday in his honor. But Rep. Conyers said the bill didn’t just honor King but an entire movement.
“I never viewed it as an isolated piece of legislation to honor one man,” Conyers explained. “Rather, I have always viewed it as an indication of the commitment of the House and the nation to the dream of Dr. King. When we pass this legislation, we should signal our commitment to the realization of full employment, world peace and freedom for all.”
But Helms’ objection to a King holiday didn’t just concern whether the civil rights leader was prominent enough of a figure to have a holiday commemorating his birth. The senator also opposed King’s politics. In particular, Helms took issue with the fact that King objected to the Vietnam War and espoused views Helms considered to be Marxist.
Shortly before his death, King began demanding economic justice for poor people of all races through his “Poor People’s Campaign” march in Washington D.C. And a year before his death, King delivered a speech at Riverside Church in New York City called “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” in which he called the U.S. government the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”
In the speech, King said he opposed Vietnam, in part, because, “We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.” King also used the speech to address accusations that he was a Communist, saying, “We must not call everyone a Communist or an appeaser who advocates the seating of Red China in the United Nations and who recognizes that hate and hysteria are not the final answers to the problem of these turbulent days.”
Jack Kemp Becomes a King Supporter
Like Sen. Helms, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) also voted against a King holiday. And while U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) had opposed creation of the holiday in 1979, by 1983 he’d changed his mind.
“I have changed my position on this vote because I really think that the American Revolution will not be complete until we commemorate the civil rights revolution and guarantee those basic declarations of human rights for all Americans and remove those barriers that stand in the way of people being what they are meant to be,” Kemp explained.
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was first observed Jan. 20, 1986. However, it wasn’t until 14 years later that each of the 50 states officially recognized the day. Arizona, in particular, would face controversy for its refusal to acknowledge King’s birthday.
MLK Day Unrecognized in Arizona
When the U.S. first celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1986, just 27 states and the District of Columbia took part in the federal observance. In Arizona, the state Legislature failed to pass a bill for a King holiday, but then Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt issued an executive order for the state to celebrate the day. The commemoration of Martin Luther King’s birth in Arizona would not last long, however.
When Republican Evan Mecham became governor, he rescinded Babbitt’s executive order in January 1987. Three years later a referendum took place in which Arizonans voted whether or not to observe the King holiday. Mecham, for one, still openly opposed such a holiday. “I guess King did a lot for the colored people, but I don’t think he deserves a national holiday,” he remarked.
The public went on to vote against a holiday in honor of King. The decision would cast a shadow on the state. Militant rap group Public Enemy recorded a single about Arizona’s refusal to honor King called “By the Time I Get to Arizona.” More significantly, in light of the King controversy, the National Football League decided to relocate Super Bowl XXVII from the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., to the Pasadena Rose Bowl. The move apparently made the state take notice. In 1992, the people of Arizona finally voted for a King holiday.
Wrapping Up
When Arizona enacted Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it marked the first time all 50 states recognized the civil rights leader’s birth in some form. However, it would take until 2000 before each state recognized the day as a paid holiday bearing King’s name. In 1999, for example, New Hampshire replaced its Civil Rights Day with its paid Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And in 2000, Utah renamed its Human Rights Day in King’s honor. That same year, South Carolina made the King holiday a paid one for all state employees. It was the last state in the union to do so. ( about.com )
Despite the controversy surrounding a proposed Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, history was made in 1983 when legislation establishing the day passed. Discover who the key players were in creating a day in celebration of King, the lawmakers who resisted such a holiday and the states which took the longest to recognize King’s legacy.
Martin Luther King Jr.
The Persistence of John Conyers
It took just four days after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination before someone suggested making his birthday a federal holiday. U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich) proposed such legislation on April 8, 1968, but Congress chose not to move the holiday legislation forward. Year after year, Conyers introduced the same legislation to no avail. By 1971, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference contributed to the effort to make the slain civil rights leader’s birthday a national holiday. SCLC collected three million signatures from citizens who supported a King holiday, but Congress still chose not to act on the proposed bill.
In 1979, Congress finally moved the holiday bill forward, but the legislation failed to garner five votes needed to make it law. The diligence of Conyers; King’s widow, Coretta Scott King; the Congressional Black Conference; and millions of supporters finally saw dividends in 1983. Then, 15 years after King’s death, more than 100 groups participated in a conference taking place to mark the 19th anniversary of the March on Washington. The conference led to a coalition forming that would lobby for a holiday in King’s honor. Musician Stevie Wonder, who had recorded the 1980 hit single “Happy Birthday” to advocate for a King holiday, donated funds to open a lobbying office in Washington D.C. In the subsequent months, Wonder and Coretta Scott King would present a petition to Speaker Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.) with six million signatures backing a King holiday. The result? Both the House and the Senate passed the King holiday legislation, which President Ronald Reagan signed into law on Nov. 2, 1983.
The King Holiday’s Opposition
In the House, the bill passed by a vote of 338 to 90, and in the Senate it passed by a vote of 78 to 22. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) was among the most prominent Republicans to oppose the King holiday bill. Helms wondered if King was a prominent enough figure to deserve a holiday in his honor. But Rep. Conyers said the bill didn’t just honor King but an entire movement.
“I never viewed it as an isolated piece of legislation to honor one man,” Conyers explained. “Rather, I have always viewed it as an indication of the commitment of the House and the nation to the dream of Dr. King. When we pass this legislation, we should signal our commitment to the realization of full employment, world peace and freedom for all.”
But Helms’ objection to a King holiday didn’t just concern whether the civil rights leader was prominent enough of a figure to have a holiday commemorating his birth. The senator also opposed King’s politics. In particular, Helms took issue with the fact that King objected to the Vietnam War and espoused views Helms considered to be Marxist.
Shortly before his death, King began demanding economic justice for poor people of all races through his “Poor People’s Campaign” march in Washington D.C. And a year before his death, King delivered a speech at Riverside Church in New York City called “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” in which he called the U.S. government the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”
In the speech, King said he opposed Vietnam, in part, because, “We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.” King also used the speech to address accusations that he was a Communist, saying, “We must not call everyone a Communist or an appeaser who advocates the seating of Red China in the United Nations and who recognizes that hate and hysteria are not the final answers to the problem of these turbulent days.”
Jack Kemp Becomes a King Supporter
Like Sen. Helms, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) also voted against a King holiday. And while U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) had opposed creation of the holiday in 1979, by 1983 he’d changed his mind.
“I have changed my position on this vote because I really think that the American Revolution will not be complete until we commemorate the civil rights revolution and guarantee those basic declarations of human rights for all Americans and remove those barriers that stand in the way of people being what they are meant to be,” Kemp explained.
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was first observed Jan. 20, 1986. However, it wasn’t until 14 years later that each of the 50 states officially recognized the day. Arizona, in particular, would face controversy for its refusal to acknowledge King’s birthday.
MLK Day Unrecognized in Arizona
When the U.S. first celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1986, just 27 states and the District of Columbia took part in the federal observance. In Arizona, the state Legislature failed to pass a bill for a King holiday, but then Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt issued an executive order for the state to celebrate the day. The commemoration of Martin Luther King’s birth in Arizona would not last long, however.
When Republican Evan Mecham became governor, he rescinded Babbitt’s executive order in January 1987. Three years later a referendum took place in which Arizonans voted whether or not to observe the King holiday. Mecham, for one, still openly opposed such a holiday. “I guess King did a lot for the colored people, but I don’t think he deserves a national holiday,” he remarked.
The public went on to vote against a holiday in honor of King. The decision would cast a shadow on the state. Militant rap group Public Enemy recorded a single about Arizona’s refusal to honor King called “By the Time I Get to Arizona.” More significantly, in light of the King controversy, the National Football League decided to relocate Super Bowl XXVII from the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., to the Pasadena Rose Bowl. The move apparently made the state take notice. In 1992, the people of Arizona finally voted for a King holiday.
Wrapping Up
When Arizona enacted Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it marked the first time all 50 states recognized the civil rights leader’s birth in some form. However, it would take until 2000 before each state recognized the day as a paid holiday bearing King’s name. In 1999, for example, New Hampshire replaced its Civil Rights Day with its paid Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And in 2000, Utah renamed its Human Rights Day in King’s honor. That same year, South Carolina made the King holiday a paid one for all state employees. It was the last state in the union to do so. ( about.com )
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