Today, Americans observe the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The commemoration comes with its share of controversy. That’s nothing new. Contentious debate — some but not all of it tinged by racism — has been an almost constant companion of the observance since it was first proposed in Congress more than four decades ago.
At first, many individuals and several states publicly resisted the establishment of the holiday. Opponents declared that Dr. King did not deserve a holiday bearing his name. Their argument was a nuanced one, carefully designed to minimize charges that their opposition was racially charged.
Those against establishment of the holiday piously proclaimed they had nothing against Dr. King, but said that the civil rights movement in its entirety — rather than its most powerful and visible advocate — should be honored. That diversion failed. Congress approved legislation creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and President Ronald Reagan signed it into law in 1983.
Still, tiffs about the holiday and the way to best honor King and his legacy continue. This year, for example, civil rights leaders are upset that some school districts — including at least two in North Georgia — will use the holiday as a snow makeup day. That decision, they say, dishonors the memory of King. That’s not necessarily so.
School officials involved in the decision said they were reluctant to take the holiday off the school calendar, but pointed out that it was necessary to do so. It was the best, and in some instances the only, way to meet state attendance mandates following nearly two weeks of weather-related school cancellations. Besides, today is not the only federal holiday that will be used as a make-up day. Some snow-plagued districts already have announced that students will be required to attend school on Presidents Day, normally a holiday, next month.
Those obsessed with the manner in which the King holiday is or is not celebrated would be better off reminding Americans about the reasons the holiday was created. The observance properly honors the man best remembered as the leader of the civil rights movement that changed America and Americans for all time. His work and the millions he inspired to follow him made it impossible for the United States to preach to the world about the virtues of equality while it did not practice them at home.
Recalling Dr. King and the time in which he lived is more important than worrying about the specifics of how the holiday is commemorated in various locales. Many, if not most, Americans living today know of Dr. King and the civil rights era only through flickering video images and textbooks. They do not have personal memories of the institutionalized cruelty and visceral hatreds that mocked the nation’s credo that all men are created equal.
If they did remember those times, they would have a clear understanding of why we honor Dr. King. They would know, too, that in remembering Dr. King we honor all those who accepted his challenge to use nonviolent methods to ultimately convince the United States to honor its guarantee of the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to every American, regardless of creed or color.