Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Posted on January 21st, 2008 by Christine.
Categories: Hilarious.

Just a quickie to say Happy Martin Luther King Day.

For me, Martin Luther King Day will always remind me of the big earthquake in California that demo’d the 10 Fwy back in 1994. I was in college at the time, living in an apartment on the tenth floor of a downtown high rise, and it was the first earthquake I’d ever been in… a very memorable experience to say the least.

To celebrate, here are some facts about MLK Day that you might not have known:

MLK Day is always celebrated on the third Monday in January. That Monday was chosen because it was close to Dr. Martin Luther King jr.’s birthday which is January 15th.

Although most of us see the holiday today as marking MLK’s fight for civil rights, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was founded as a holiday promoted by labor unions in contract negotiations. After King’s death, Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, introduced a bill in Congress to make King’s birthday a national holiday, highlighting King’s activism on behalf of trade unionists.

Six million signatures were collected for a petition to Congress to pass the law turning MLK Day into a national holiday, termed by a 2006 The Nation article as “…the largest petition in favor of an issue in United States History.”

Overall, in 2007, 33% of employers gave employees MLK Day off, while 33% of large employers over 1,000 and 32% of smaller employers gave time off. The observance is most popular amongst nonprofit organizations and least popular among factories and manufacturers.

In Utah, the holiday was known as “Human Rights Day” until the year 2000, when the Utah State Legislature voted to change the name of the holiday from Human Rights Day to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In that same year Governor Michael O. Leavitt signed the bill officially naming the holiday “Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.”

In Virginia, the holiday was added on to Lee-Jackson Day, a day meant to honor Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and became Lee-Jackson-King Day. The incongruous nature of the holiday, which simultaneously celebrated the lives of Confederate Army generals and a civil rights icon, did not escape the notice of Virginia lawmakers. In 2000, a Martin Luther King Day was established in Virginia.

On January 17, 2000, Martin Luther King Day was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time. Prior to that date, New Hampshire and Arizona had not observed the day and received a great deal of pressure and criticism for choosing not to. After a 1992 proposition to recognize the holiday in Arizona did not pass, the NFL boycotted hosting Super Bowl XXVII at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe.

The national Martin Luther King Day of Service was started by former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Harris Wofford and Atlanta Congressman John Lewis, who co-authored the King Holiday and Service Act. The federal legislation challenges Americans to transform the King Holiday into a day of citizen action through volunteer service in honor of Dr. King. The federal legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 23, 1994.

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