As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, this memo serves as a reminder of the road it took for this day to be recognized as a federal holiday. The day was created as a day of service for us to get out and do something to better our community in honor of Dr. King’s life and legacy. It’s an entire world dedicated to honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
On the third Monday of January every year, the federal government closes up shop for a day to honor civil rights hero Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — who was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. But the road to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was fraught. It didn't become a federal holiday until 1986, nearly 20 years after it was introduced to Congress, per the King Center. Even then, it faced an upward battle for all states to recognize the holiday, only getting nationally recognized in 2000.
To this day, it collides in Alabama and Mississippi with Robert E. Lee Day, which honors the Confederate general, in Alabama and Mississippi. While the nation recognizes King as an "icon for democracy" today, in the 1960s and 1970s, he was still a controversial figure according to Michael Honey, an American historian and professor of humanities at University of Washington, Tacoma.
“This was the first holiday around a national figure who is not a president, and who is African American,” Honey said. “Many in Congress did not want to recognize an African-American that was thought of as a troublemaker by some in his day.”
Becoming a Federal Holiday
On April 8, 1968, Representative. John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced legislation for a federal holiday, according to The King Center. The next year, on January 15, 1969, annual ceremonies commemorating King's birthday were launched by The King Center in Atlanta. It called for nationwide ceremonies and began working to gain support for the holiday.
In the 1970's, support for a national Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday grew. Several states, including Illinois, Massachusetts and Connecticut, become the first states to enact statewide King holidays, but Congress failed to act on a national level, according to The King Center.
It Becomes Official
On November 3, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill marking the third Monday of January, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, according to The King Center. The holiday was to begin in 1986. In January 1986, the first national Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed as it continues today.
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