Does MLK Day Really Tell The Whole Story?

Yes, today, the third Monday in January, we are celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. It is now a Federal Holiday.  Like most holidays most people think of it as just another day off.

This three-day holiday is often used to do a mini vacation with travel to a nearby city or even a quick ski trip or time in the sun.

Do you stop and think what is behind this celebration of the birthday and life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Martin Luther King, Jr. made a difference through his tireless work.  You can make a difference with education and certification in an area of interest. Here at Leap University we can help.

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day is no long-standing tradition. The holiday is a little more than three decades old, and its establishment was no sure thing. Here’s how the occasion became as central to January in America as New Year’s resolutions.

Beginning almost immediately after King’s assassination, some members of Congress proposed that his birthday ought to be a national holiday, but bills mandating the occasion went nowhere. The effort received more publicity when, after about a decade, shortly after the failure of a bill that was introduced by Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan in September of 1979, Stevie Wonder released a song called “Happy Birthday.”

By the summer of 1982 it was clear that some version of the holiday bill was sure to pass. (It had been reintroduced in July, by Rep. Katie Hall of Indiana.) “Faced with inevitable congressional passage of a bill to make Martin Luther King‘s birthday a national holiday, Reagan swallowed his longstanding objections that this would open the door to many other groups seeking similar holidays and decided that he would support the measure,” Though the Reagan campaign didn’t hope to win among black voters in 1984, making a grand gesture out of Martin Luther King Jr. Day could appeal to more moderate white voters.

President Ronald Reagan signed the bill, proposed by Representative Katie Hall of Indiana, to create a federal holiday honoring Dr. King on Nov. 2, 1983. The bill had passed the House of Representatives by a count of 338 to 90, a veto-proof margin. The holiday was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986.

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