Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Still Faces Pushback
Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Still Faces Pushback
By LIAM STACKJAN. 16, 2017
Today is Martin Luther King’s Birthday, the federal holiday that honors the assassinated civil rights leader.
Well, not everywhere.
All 50 states celebrate the public holiday on the third Monday in January, but not all states, cities and towns dedicate it solely to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Some package it as a broader celebration of civil rights.
Lexington, Va., even uses the day to honor two Confederate generals: Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
State-by-state naming differences are remnants of fierce opposition to a holiday that was not officially recognized by all states until 1999. Here is a brief history of how Martin Luther King Jr. Day came to be.
How Did Martin Luther King Jr. Day Become a Holiday?
A federal holiday honoring Dr. King was first proposed four days after he was assassinated, in 1968, but it took almost two decades of campaigning for it to be approved and designated at the national level.
In the meantime, according to the King Center, a few Northern states approved the holiday from 1973 to 1975: Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut and, by court order, New Jersey.
But state-level momentum slowed and Congress did not act. Advocates led by Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, spent years lobbying for the holiday, testifying before Congress and gathering millions of signatures on petitions.
President Jimmy Carter expressed support for the federal holiday in 1979. The singer Stevie Wonder became a prominent supporter, too, financing a Washington lobbying office and releasing a hit 1980 song in support, “Happy Birthday.”
READ MORE: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/us/mart...
By LIAM STACKJAN. 16, 2017
Today is Martin Luther King’s Birthday, the federal holiday that honors the assassinated civil rights leader.
Well, not everywhere.
All 50 states celebrate the public holiday on the third Monday in January, but not all states, cities and towns dedicate it solely to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Some package it as a broader celebration of civil rights.
Lexington, Va., even uses the day to honor two Confederate generals: Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
State-by-state naming differences are remnants of fierce opposition to a holiday that was not officially recognized by all states until 1999. Here is a brief history of how Martin Luther King Jr. Day came to be.
How Did Martin Luther King Jr. Day Become a Holiday?
A federal holiday honoring Dr. King was first proposed four days after he was assassinated, in 1968, but it took almost two decades of campaigning for it to be approved and designated at the national level.
In the meantime, according to the King Center, a few Northern states approved the holiday from 1973 to 1975: Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut and, by court order, New Jersey.
But state-level momentum slowed and Congress did not act. Advocates led by Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, spent years lobbying for the holiday, testifying before Congress and gathering millions of signatures on petitions.
President Jimmy Carter expressed support for the federal holiday in 1979. The singer Stevie Wonder became a prominent supporter, too, financing a Washington lobbying office and releasing a hit 1980 song in support, “Happy Birthday.”
READ MORE: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/us/mart...
In the Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.