NOW Celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day

The idea to establish the third Monday of January as a national holiday recognizing the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an early response to his horrific murder on April 4, 1968, outside a motel in Memphis, but it took years of campaigning and grassroots activism to overcome opposition and make it a truly national day of remembrance.

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), who, when he was first elected was one of only six Black House members, proposed legislation four days after the assassination.  The Congressional Black Caucus, founded by Conyers, tried to bring the legislation up for a vote for the next 15 years.  But opponents in Congress said that public holidays couldn’t apply to private citizens, or that King was a communist.

In the meantime, his widow, Coretta Scott King and allies including NOW kept pushing for it.  Stevie Wonder released a song, “Happy Birthday” to rally support.  Finally, in 1983, the legislation cleared Congress and President Ronald Reagan signed it.

But that didn’t end the bitter debate over the holiday.  It took 17 years for all 50 states to observe the holiday.  In Arizona, the legislature voted against a paid King holiday 30 times.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed into law Congressman John Lewis and Sen. Harris Wofford’s legislation making it a National Day of Service.

In 2018, John Lewis said,

“The Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is a day on, not a day off. It is a day of service to our communities, to our brothers and sisters, and to generations yet unborn so that we all may continue Dr. King’s work of building the beloved community. Dr. King was my friend, my brother, my leader. He was the moral compass of our nation and he taught us to recognize the dignity and worth of every human being.

Today, Dr. King’s legacy is a guiding light. As we push and pull for a more just and more equal society, Dr King’s campaigns against war, against poverty, against racism show us that love is the universal value for a society at peace with itself.

As Dr. King used to say, you have to love the hell out of them”

On this MLK Day, NOW members celebrate the life and work of Dr. King, John Lewis and so many others, and we rededicate ourselves to their fight for freedom and justice.

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