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The social turmoil of the 60s had given way to increased calls for “law and order” - a dog whistle that played on stereotypes of Black criminality and demanded increased policing and punitive measures in poor Black and Latino neighborhoods. Lee inside namesake school causes concern Push for MLK holiday intensifiesīy the time Wonder began to pen the lyrics to his infectious tune, things looked bleak. More: As Confederate statues tumble, a tribute to Robert E. The next year, it passed through the statehouse unanimously and so-called “Lee-King” Day was signed into law.
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George Wallace announced support of the latter bill. Lee’s, which was already observed on the third Monday of January. Holmes, who served from 1974 to 2018, would advance two alternative bills in April and October 1983: the first would combine the state’s three Confederate holidays and mark it in June on Jefferson Davis’ birthday the second would combine King’s birthday with Robert E. The president endorsed the bill, but not even a plea from the sanctuary of King’s former Atlanta church Ebenezer Baptist moved the congressional needle. When Jimmy Carter won the 1976 presidential election, King supporters had hoped he would be swayed to act by his debt to the unions, which had played a major role in his victory. By the early 70s, the United Autoworkers and AFSCME, two of the country’s largest unions, had made the King holiday a regular demand in contract negotiations. When King was killed in Memphis, Tennessee, he was there to back striking sanitation workers who were pushing for higher wages among other work reforms.Īt a New York General Motors plant, a small group of auto workers refused to labor on King’s birthday one year after his death, and thousands of hospital workers launched a strike until managers agreed to make it a paid holiday. The leader had been a strong labor union supporter and set the demand for fair wages and “full employment” as a centerpiece of his activism. Yet by 1981 only 13 states had recognized it - to some degree.Īs early as 1969, Black and brown union workers had begun to agitate in favor of the King holiday. By 1973, King’s hometown of Atlanta had designated the day as a legal holiday. 15 birthday a holiday ( they claim they were the first government body in the U.S. On the day of King’s funeral, one south New Jersey town’s school board swiftly passed a resolution declaring his Jan. Instantaneously, both official and unofficial memorials and commemorations cropped up in cities and towns across the country.
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Day 2021 with free admission to national parks That first MLK Day was also observed, as Time Magazine reported, with candlelight vigils, concerts, readings, teach-ins, and religious services throughout the US, “occasions to recall one of the most painful and dramatic eras of American history.”Īs Stevie had written in the lyric: “ I just never understood/ How a man who died for good/ Could not have a day that would/ Be set aside for his recognition.”īuy or stream “Happy Birthday” on Hotter Than July.More: Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Listen to the Return To Wonder Motown playlist. Day was celebrated for the first time, and Wonder headlined a major concert to mark the occasion. On January 20, 1986, as Americans commemorated the birthday of the great man with a holiday in his name, Martin Luther King, Jr. President Ronald Reagan approved the holiday, to be observed on the third Monday in January each year. In late 1983, Stevie and Coretta’s wishes were granted. Perhaps ironically for a song spearheading an American campaign, it enjoyed its biggest success internationally, climbing to No.2 in the UK. The Motown superstar held the Rally for Peace press conference in 1981, when the track came out as a single. After the 1979 defeat of the bill, Wonder wrote “Happy Birthday” and included it on his Hotter Than July album of 1980.