I Have A Dream
It took 15 years to create the federal Martin Luther King Day.
Congressman John Conyers, Democrat from Michigan
first introduced legislation for a
commemorative holiday four days after King was
assassinated in 1968. After the bill became stalled,
petitions endorsing the holiday containing
six million names were submitted to Congress.
Conyers and Rep. Shirley Chisholm, Democrat of New York,
resubmitted King holiday legislation each subsequent
legislative session. Public pressure for the holiday
mounted during the 1982 and 1983 civil rights marches
in Washington.
Congress passed the holiday legislation in 1983, which was
then signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
A compromise moving the holiday from Jan. 15,
King's birthday, which was considered too close to Christmas
and New Year's, to the third Monday in January
helped overcome opposition to the law.
National Consensus on the Holiday
A number of states resisted celebrating the holiday. Some
opponents said King did not deserve his own holiday—contending
that the entire civil rights movement rather
than one individual, however instrumental,
should be honored. Several southern states include
celebrations for various Confederate generals on
that day, while Utah calls it Human Rights Day.
Legislation is now pending to change the name
to Martin Luther King Day. Arizona voters approved
the holiday in 1992 after a threatened tourist
boycott. In 1999, New Hampshire changed the name of
Civil Rights Day to Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.
