As most Americans in every state are off from work today, thanks to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it’s worth taking a brief look back at how, for years, many states chose to ignore him on their version of the holiday, while others used (or still use) the yearly occasion for an even greater slight.
Fifteen years after King’s assassination, President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law and it was first observed three years later, in 1986. It should be noted that Reagan opposed the idea, but since the bill passed by an overwhelming, veto-proof margin, he was powerless to stop it. Several states, however, would spend years equivocating on their recognition of the day and it wasn’t until 2000 that all 50 states officially recognized “Martin Luther King, Jr.” on the third Monday of January.
Idaho and New Hampshire spent years calling the holiday by other names that didn’t cite Dr. King at all, instead choosing generic labels of ‘Civil Rights’ or ‘Human Rights’ for their Holidays. In the years following MLK Day becoming a federal observance, Arizona went back and forth on the matter, until voters finally approved a 1992 referendum creating Martin Luther King Jr./Civil Rights Day. Their inability to commit to the holiday led the NFL to pull Super Bowl XXVII hosting duties from the state.
Until 2000, South Carolina employees could choose whether they wanted to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day or one of three Confederate holidays. The idea of honoring Dr. King’s legacy by making citizens choose between him and the Confederacy may seem insulting to his legacy, but four other southern states took the indignity a step further.
Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Virginia decided that their observances would pay tribute to both the birthdays of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert E. Lee. In these states, the day honoring the United States’ greatest African-American civil rights hero would simultaneously commemorate a man who deserted and took up arms against the United States in an effort to maintain his right to own African-Americans. In 2000, Virginia removed Robert E. Lee’s name from the holiday, while it took Arkansas until just last year to follow suit; yet neither eliminated their Confederate commemorations altogether but rather moved them to different days. Two states, which could be said to have been the primary battlegrounds of the civil rights movement five decades ago, maintain shared King/Lee designations to this day.
Today – January 15th, 2018 – Alabama and Mississippi will once again recognize Dr. King and Robert E. Lee together. Both men, on the same day. One man who gave his own life in the fight to bring rights to African-Americans and another man who took other’s lives in a fight to deny rights from African-Americans.
