In the speech, King said he opposed Vietnam, in part, because, “We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.” King also used the speech to address accusations that he was a Communist, saying, “We must not call everyone a Communist or an appeaser who advocates the seating of Red China in the United Nations and who recognizes that hate and hysteria are not the final answers to the problem of these turbulent days.”
Jack Kemp Becomes a King Supporter
Like Sen. Helms, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) also voted against a King holiday. And while U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) had opposed creation of the holiday in 1979, by 1983 he’d changed his mind.
“I have changed my position on this vote because I really think that the American Revolution will not be complete until we commemorate the civil rights revolution and guarantee those basic declarations of human rights for all Americans and remove those barriers that stand in the way of people being what they are meant to be,” Kemp explained.
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was first observed Jan. 20, 1986. However, it wasn’t until 14 years later that each of the 50 states officially recognized the day. Arizona, in particular, would face controversy for its refusal to acknowledge King’s birthday.
MLK Day Unrecognized in Arizona
When the U.S. first celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1986, just 27 states and the District of Columbia took part in the federal observance. In Arizona, the state Legislature failed to pass a bill for a King holiday, but then Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt issued an executive order for the state to celebrate the day. The commemoration of Martin Luther King’s birth in Arizona would not last long, however.
When Republican Evan Mecham became governor, he rescinded Babbitt’s executive order in January 1987. Three years later a referendum took place in which Arizonans voted whether or not to observe the King holiday. Mecham, for one, still openly opposed such a holiday. “I guess King did a lot for the colored people, but I don’t think he deserves a national holiday,” he remarked.
The public went on to vote against a holiday in honor of King. The decision would cast a shadow on the state. Militant rap group Public Enemy recorded a single about Arizona’s refusal to honor King called “By the Time I Get to Arizona.” More significantly, in light of the King controversy, the National Football League decided to relocate Super Bowl XXVII from the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., to the Pasadena Rose Bowl. The move apparently made the state take notice. In 1992, the people of Arizona finally voted for a King holiday.
Wrapping Up
When Arizona enacted Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it marked the first time all 50 states recognized the civil rights leader’s birth in some form. However, it would take until 2000 before each state recognized the day as a paid holiday bearing King’s name. In 1999, for example, New Hampshire replaced its Civil Rights Day with its paid Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And in 2000, Utah renamed its Human Rights Day in King’s honor. That same year, South Carolina made the King holiday a paid one for all state employees. It was the last state in the union to do so.
