From Dream To Reality: The Martin Luther King Holiday

Cokie Roberts remembers the political climate in 1983 when the bill to give Martin Luther King Junior his own holiday finally passed, and the years-long battle for it to be adopted nationwide.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Today is a federal holiday, but it took a long time for that to be true. The idea to set aside a day celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr. was first suggested in 1968, just four days after King was assassinated. But for that idea to become a reality, that was a long and twisting path that took many years.

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UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #1: On Martin Luther King's birthday, moves to make it a national holiday.

UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #2: The need for a national holiday to honor him caused the largest single demonstration from the crowd of about 2,000.

UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #3: We can pass this bill in the House, the real problem is in the United States Senate.

UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #4: Recent polls show support for some form of holiday for the civil rights leader.

MCEVERS: But Martin Luther King Day is officially recognized as a holiday in only 43 of the 50 states.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We're Arizona. I don't want New Yorkers telling me how to vote.

MCEVERS: When Martin Luther King's birthday became a national holiday 12 years ago, only a few businesses recognized it.

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UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #5: New Hampshire has joined the rest of the country in creating a holiday honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

MCEVERS: In this part of the program, we're going to explore why it was such a long slog through Congress and the states.

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MCEVERS: We're calling the segment Timelapse. It's a chance to flip through history and listen to what's in NPR's archives and talk to producers and reporters who covered these events. Let's start with the man who first suggested the holiday. Here's Michigan Congressman John Conyers In 1983.

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JOHN CONYERS: I was just counting up the years 'cause I couldn't believe it. This is the 15th year that I've been doing this.

MCEVERS: It was Conyers who brought up the idea of a holiday for King in 1968. By the time of this interview, the process had finally started.

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CONYERS: We've had a lot of learning going on since 1968 in these 15 years. The celebration and memory of King has continued to become larger and larger each year.

MCEVERS: NPR contributor Cokie Roberts covered the progression of the King holiday bill. Hi there, Cokie.

COKIE ROBERTS, BYLINE: Hi.

MCEVERS: Take us back to when you first started paying attention to this issue.

ROBERTS: Well, John Conyers, who you've just heard from, did bring a bill to the House floor in 1979. And as he said, it basically could go through the House any old time, but the Senate was the problem. Stevie Wonder had a song "Happy Birthday," which did sort of lean on people who weren't supporting it. But the real genius behind getting it done was Indiana Congresswoman Katie Hall, and she decided that the smart thing to do was make it a Monday holiday, and then she could work with all of the retailers about having a three-day weekend in January in between Christmas and Washington's Birthday to have people go shopping.

MCEVERS: We're going to go back here to 1983. We're going to hear South Carolina Democrat Robin Tallon.

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ROBIN TALLON: Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of HR 3706 legislation to make that third Monday in January each year a national holiday in observance of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.

MCEVERS: What do you remember from that day? I mean, what was the mood? Were legislators fearful if they supported this bill?

ROBERTS: No, no, they were excited, but here's what I really think listening to that, there's no such person as Robin Tallon anymore. There aren't any white Democrats in the South in Congress, and what we're really looking at is a very different breakdown of political parties now from what we saw then.

MCEVERS: You also reported on the opposition in the House, and let's listen to that a little bit.

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TALLON: Only four representatives spoke in opposition to the holiday. Their argument - King was not a person of similar significance to the nation as George Washington or Christopher Columbus, and a new federal holiday would cost too much. California Republican William Dannemeyer managed the opposition.

WILLIAM DANNEMEYER: It's been estimated that the cost of this to the taxpayers - federal taxpayers is $225 million in lost productivity in our federal workforce. And my final point is that the administration is opposed to the bill in its present form that is being brought up under the suspension calendar.

ROBERTS: Well, the administration actually ended up being for it, and part of the reason for that - now, we're talking about the year 1983 - the next year was an election year. And President Reagan, though not expecting certainly to win a majority of the African-American vote, was hoping to do better with it than he had in 1980, and saw this as an opportunity to perhaps shore up his support there.

MCEVERS: So the bill eventually passed and then went to the Senate.

ROBERTS: Yes, that had always been the sticking point, but the times had really changed in the United States Senate.

MCEVERS: Here's NPR's Nina Totenberg reporting on what that Senate debate was like.

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NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: The day began with Senator Helms, the leading opponent of the King holiday, sending to each senator hundreds of pages of FBI documents about Dr. King.

MCEVERS: Documents - what documents is she talking about?

ROBERTS: Well, the FBI had wiretapped Martin Luther King, and there was a lot of concern on the part of some members of the Senate that he really had communist sympathies and such things. It was mainly voiced by Senator Jesse Helms, but it was something that he thought would show people that Martin Luther King did not deserve this holiday - it didn't work.

MCEVERS: Let's hear some more from the Senate floor at that time.

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TOTENBERG: New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan furiously hurled the papers to the ground and stormed off.

DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN: I've just come from the Senate floor where I spoke with as much conviction as any time since coming to this place about the obscent (ph) of putting on the desks of United States senators this packet of filth.

MCEVERS: In the end, the Senate did pass the bill. Here's Kansas Republican Bob Dole.

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BOB DOLE: I'm very proud of my party today. I think the Republican Party has indicated to everyone who wants to look at us that, you know, we're in the mainstream. We understand a lot of the concerns people have. It was a very proud moment I know for Senator Mathias, myself and Senator Baker to play a role in this very important legislation. We thank you very much.

ROBERTS: Here we are, I said there was no such thing as a Southern white Democrat anymore. There's no such thing as a northern liberal Republican anymore with the exception perhaps of Susan Collins of Maine. So when he talked about Senator Mathias of Maryland, that person is gone from the United States Senate. And what's so striking in listening to this tape is Bob Dole managing the bill; Howard Baker, the majority leader of the Senate, Republican from Tennessee; George H.W. Bush, the vice president of the United States, comes to the chamber to show the administration's support for the Martin Luther King holiday. Again, that party is gone. It would be very hard to get this holiday passed today.

MCEVERS: Cokie, what do you remember about that day?

ROBERTS: The day the bill passed the Senate, Coretta Scott King was in the gallery, and so it was a very emotional goosebump-provoking day. As a reporter of, course, you're just covering the story, but I would be lying if I didn't say that it did have moments of real tears coming to my eyes, seeing how the country had changed from my days of growing up in the Jim Crow South.

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MCEVERS: Cokie Roberts, thank you so much.

ROBERTS: Good to be with you.

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