Public pressure for the holiday was mounting. She and Wonder presented a petition to the speaker of the house bearing more than 6 million signatures of support. In February 1982 they were invited to testify before Congress it was not Scott King's first appearance. While Conyer’s bill languished in the House for 13 years, Wonder and Scott King never relented. More than a decade of persistence pays off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day Wonder again sponsored two more rallies at the capital in '82 and '83. The singer continued to intensify his efforts, funding a lobbying office in Washington to advocate for the holiday’s passage and working hand-in-hand with Congressional Black Caucus members to advance the goal. The single, the marches, the musical appearances had all helped the campaign pick up speed. I think there was a real fear about what this new bloc of voters might portend and what they might produce in terms of Republican control,” said Alabama State University history chair Professor Derryn Moten. “After the Voting Rights Act of 1965, we had scores of Blacks elected to state legislatures, more Blacks elected as sheriffs Blacks were holding all kinds of elected offices throughout the South. Johnson’s passage of mid-60s civil rights reforms, gave conservatives pause. moved through the 70s and into the 80s, the gaps in poverty and social stratification between Americans had widened considerably.īlack voters, further enfranchised by President Lyndon B. 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. 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.
#HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG BY STEVIE WONDER LYRICS FREE#
Day 2021 with free admission to national parks
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