Martin Luther King Jr. Day History
Many of us know that Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the third Monday in January and the reason behind a nice long weekend, but few of us know the time and effort that went into creating the holiday to honor the great civil rights leader. There was a long fight to make MLK day a federal holiday in the United States that started four days after King’s assassination on April 4, 1968. It was not celebrated as a federal holiday until almost 20 years later in 1986.
Martin Luther King Junior was a Minister and Civil Rights Activist known for his peaceful protests and moving speeches. As a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, King made one of the most lasting and visible impacts on civil rights. He was known for his moving speeches such as “I have a Dream,” organizing the Montgomery bus boycott and his manifesto “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” amongst numerous other things. According to the Nobel Foundation, King was the youngest man to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at age 35.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, and the first push to make an MLK holiday was on April 8, 1968, when Representative John Conyers introduced legislation to create the federal holiday. On King’s birthday in 1969, the King Center in Atlanta started annual celebrations and called for others to support the holiday, according to the King Center. Illinois was the first state to celebrate MLK day as a state holiday when Harold Washington, an Illinois state representative introduced a bill. The bill passed Illinois in 1973, making Illinois the first state with a holiday dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. Other states followed in Illinois footsteps and created their own state holidays. Washington went on to D.C. to gain support for making MLK Day a federal holiday.
After the bill failed year after year in Congress, Conyers enlisted the help of the Congressional Black Caucus. Bills continued to fail with the help of the CBC until the 20th anniversary of the March on Washington and the “I Have a Dream” speech in 1983. Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement gathered in Washington and Stevie Wonder wrote a successful song, “Happy Birthday” about King. This seemed to prompt the passage of an MLK day bill.
The bill was passed that same year in 1983 and signed into legislation by President Ronald Reagan. It was observed for the first time in 1986, but not all states initially celebrated. Some southern states combined the holiday with Robert E. Lee’s birthday which is on January 19th. Other states went back and forth on their stance to celebrate MLK Day. Arizona initially celebrated MLK day and then rescinded the holiday until a voter referendum reinstated it in 1992. It was not until 2000 that every state in the United States observed MLK Day.
MLK Day is on the third Monday of January instead of his birthday, January 15th, due to the Uniform Holiday Act that was enacted by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. According to the Department of Labor, the purpose of the act is to allow families who live further apart time to travel to see each other on the weekends. This act is why MLK Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Presidents Day are all on Mondays.
On the 20th anniversary of countrywide observance, take the day off to reflect on the history of this day and of all the accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr. himself. As a law firm based in Illinois, we are proud to be from the first state to celebrate MLK day.
