Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968)The push to make Martin Luther King Jr. a holiday took 32 years, a lot of campaigning, and guest appearances by Ted Kennedy, Stevie Wonder, and the National Football League.
Dr. King's birthday was officially approved as a federal holiday. He was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta. The King holiday is always observed the third Monday every January. By 2000, all fifty states recognized Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a government holiday. It wasn't an easy task to make that happen. The King Center in Atlanta gives a detailed chronology on how the efforts, shortly after King died, to make it a holiday, wasn't an easy task for supporters whether it be in Congress or the states. Hence, there was a twofold battle to recognize the holidays--the federal government and the states.
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) introduced the first motion to make Martin Luther King Jr. a holiday four days after King's assassination in Memphis. It took 11 years later in 1979 for the resolution to come up for a vote in Congress. The bill needed a two-thirds majority to pass, but it fell five votes short by a 252-133 count, despite a strong support from the King Center, then President Carter, and members of Congress in both houses. The holiday supporters regrouped and re-intensified their efforts. Musician Stevie Wonder helped in 1981 by singing the song "Happy Birthday" to promote the holiday.
The King Center kept up its efforts with a march on Washington, with Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife, 500,000 people, along with Stevie Wonder, presented a petition signed by six million people to House Leader Tip O'Neill. The House took up the bill in 1983 and it passed by 53 votes with help from House Speaker O'Neill and House Majority Leader Jim Wright. Republicans Jack Kemp and Newt Gingrich gave speeches supporting the holiday. However, passing the bill in the Senate would be contentious because then Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) was opposed to it. He started a filibuster and presented a 400-page file accusing Dr. King of being a communist. Senator Kennedy criticized Helms and Senator Patrick Moynihan called it filth and threw it on the floor. Despite Helms, the bill passed the Senate by 12 votes with South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond supporting the bill. President Reagan signed the bill in November 1983 and the first King holiday was celebrated in 1986.
It took longer for the 50 states to approve the holiday. By 1986, 17 states had already approved the holiday. There was strong resistance in Arizona to pass the holiday. The fight between state legislators came to a head when the King holiday was put up for Arizona voter referendum in 1990. Entertainers started protesting and boycotting the state. The NFL threatened to move the 1993 Superbowl from Tempe if the referendum was defeated. The King holiday lost in a two-part voter referendum and the NFL retaliated by moving the Superbowl to Southern California costing the state $500 million in revenue. Arizona voters approved the King holiday two years later. Click on the above link to read the rest of the article.
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