Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. He chose that location in part to honor President Abraham Lincoln as “a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today.” Now millions of people honor King in the same way.
On the third Monday in January – close to King’s birthday on January 15 – federal, state and local governments, agencies and various industries recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day. For some, the holidays are just that: time off from work or school. But King’s family and others who continue his legacy of equality, justice and nonviolent protest want Americans to remember that this holiday is actually about helping others.
Although now a time-honored tradition, the holiday’s founding had a long and difficult path to acceptance.
The idea to create a national holiday for the civil rights icon came as the nation was in grief. American Democratic Representative John Conyers of Michiganone of the longest-serving members of Congress, known for his liberal stance on civil rights, proposed legislation to recognize King four days after his assassination outside a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.
The supporters knew it wouldn’t be easy. King, who was 39 years old at the time, was a polarizing figure for half the country even before his death, said Lerone Martin, director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. Polls by the Washington Post and the New York Times showed that most Americans did not trust King or considered him too radical because of his speeches on poverty, housing and against the Vietnam War.
“People say King moves too fast after 1965 and basically, ‘Hey, you got the Voting Rights Act done. That’s enough,” Martin said.
The Congressional Black Caucus, founded by Conyers, attempted to bring the legislation to a vote over the next fifteen years. Among the Republican rebuttals are that holidays do not apply to private citizens, that King was a communist, or that King was a womanizer. Meanwhile, his widow, Coretta Scott King, continued to lobby for it. Musician Stevie Wonder even released a song, “Happy Birthday,” to rally support.
What has changed?
By the 1980s, the social and cultural climate in the U.S. had changed and the public was thinking about racial progress, Martin said. Most Americans now also regretted the war in Vietnam. Supporters, meanwhile, were still calling for federal holiday status.
In 1983, about two decades after King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, legislation for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the third Monday in January was authorized by Congress and signed by President Ronald Reagan.
Reagan’s signing did not lead to other Republicans following suit. It would take another seventeen years before all fifty states would observe this. Most of the towing traffic came from the south, except for Arizona. Then, in 1987, Governor Evan Mecham rescinded his predecessor’s executive order establishing a holiday in Arizona.
“He said, ‘Black people don’t need a vacation. You all need a job,” reminds Dr. Warren H. Stewart Sr. himself, senior pastor at First Institutional Baptist Church in Phoenix. “That started the war.”
Stewart launched a group to lead “people of all colors and all creeds, creeds and parties” in protest marches. Entertainers, including Wonder, have canceled events in Arizona. Companies moved conferences. The turning point was the loss of hosting the Super Bowl. In 1992, Arizona became the first state to vote to restore the King’s Day holiday.
Supporters took a victory lap the next MLK day with a packed arena concert attended by Wonder and other performers. Even Rosa Parks was there. Stewart remembers speaking to the crowd.
“What I said there – and it still applies today – we won the holiday, but the holiday is a symbol of freedom and justice for all and we have to move from symbol to substance,” he said.
South Carolina was the last point of support until 2000. But that happened without the support of civil rights groups, because it also made possible a Confederate Memorial Day.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Reach Day has only grown in his 42 years.
It’s the only federal holiday where you take a “day off,” not a day off. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed legislation by Congressman John Lewis and Senator Harris Wofford, making it a National Day of Service.
Just about every major city and suburb has some revelry the weekend before, including parades, street festivals and concerts. The various service projects cover a broad spectrum: community cleanup, packing food boxes, donating blood.
AmeriCorps, the federal agency that uses volunteers to serve communities across the country, has distributed $1.5 million in grants to 200 nonprofits, faith-based groups and other organizations for projects. CEO Michael Smith estimates that there have been hundreds of projects involving hundreds of thousands of people in recent years for MLK Day. Involvement seems to be increasing.
“You know, every day I see another project that has nothing to do with us,” said Smith, who served in President Joe Biden’s administration. “What’s so important about the King’s holiday is not just the service that’s going to take place, but how it creates a spark for people to think about how they might serve throughout the year.”
That’s something King’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King and CEO of the King Center in Atlanta, also wants. She wish people would do more than just quote King, which we like to do. They must do good work and commit themselves daily ‘to embrace the spirit of non-violence’.
Martin also thinks it is important to get to know the man himself. He finds it exciting when people read or hear about the Nobel Peace Prize winner. But nothing compares to absorbing King’s own writings, such as his 1963 “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” he added.
“We can arm ourselves with his ideals,” Martin said. “We can continue to have a conversation with him – not just on one day, but actually all year round.”