The United States is celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday meant to honor the life of the civil rights icon. But in Alabama and Mississippi, Monday is also Robert E. Lee Day in honor of the Confederate general.
Both states recognize King and Lee on the third Monday in January. Their state governments created holidays more than a century ago to honor Lee and later combined the day with a federal holiday established in the 1980s to honor King.
The strange juxtaposition of honoring people from different heritages has been going on for decades.
Both the persons have birthday in January. Lee was born on January 19, 1807. King was born on January 15, 1929.
AP
In the years following the Civil War, white politicians in Southern states celebrated several holidays honoring Confederate leaders and dead Confederate soldiers. In 1901, Alabama lawmakers named a January state holiday for Lee. Mississippi did the same in 1910.
President Ronald Reagan signs legislation designating the third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Jr. Day in honor of the slain civil rights leader in 1983. States gradually added this day to their roster of state holidays. In the 1980s, Alabama and Mississippi adopted Martin Luther King Day as a state holiday and added it to their existing day in Lee's honor.
Some other Southern states also once had a joint holiday, but they have ended that practice, leaving only Alabama and Mississippi with a single day to honor both King and Lee.
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Black lawmakers in Alabama and Mississippi have made several efforts in recent years to desegregate the holiday but have so far been unsuccessful.
Rep. Kenyatta Hassell said he plans to try again in Alabama in the legislative session that starts next month. It is disrespectful to King's memory and the struggle of the civil rights movement to commemorate him with the Confederate general, the Democratic lawmaker said.
“There are fundamental differences between General Lee and Dr. King. A Confederate general, he fought to preserve slavery and uphold the entire institution of white supremacy. Dr. King was a civil rights leader who fought for equality and Fought for justice.” Hassell said.
The holidays celebrating Lee and King together come in states where black residents make up more than a quarter of the population. Black citizens make up 36% of the population in Mississippi and 27% in Alabama.
King first rose to prominence in the 1950s as the leader of a boycott against the segregated bus system in Montgomery, Alabama.
In 2023, Hassell co-sponsored legislation with more than a dozen other lawmakers that would remove the reference to Lee on the January holidays. Another 2024 bill would have moved Lee's holiday to Columbus Day in October, which coincides with the month of his death. None of the bills reached the floor vote.
In Mississippi, Representative Kabir Karrim, a Democrat from Columbus, introduced legislation this session that would remove Lee's recognition from the holiday. The bill states that its purpose is to “reflect the transformative power of Mississippi from past to present by celebrating holidays that reflect the remarkable progress made by all citizens.”
Many states in the South have chosen to eliminate or rename Confederate-related holidays.
Louisiana removed Robert E. Lee Day and Confederate Memorial Day from the list of official state holidays in 2022.
Virginia canceled a holiday in 2020 honoring Lee and Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, both natives of the state, to make Election Day a state holiday.
Georgia changed Confederate Memorial Day to the neutral title “State Holiday” in 2015. Arkansas ended the state's practice of commemorating Lee on the same day as King in 2017, leaving only Alabama and Mississippi to remain.
Alabama and Mississippi have three federal-related state holidays. Both states celebrate Confederate Memorial Day in April and the birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. South Carolina celebrates Confederate Memorial Day in May.
Other states have federal-related holidays, but they are not full holidays when state offices are closed.