In Mississippi and Alabama, Martin Luther King Jr. Shares a Holiday with Robert E. Lee
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s birthday and tomorrow is the federally recognized holiday honoring his legacy, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
However, in both Alabama and Mississippi, tomorrow is also officially Robert E. Lee Day, a holiday celebrating the confederate general’s birthday, which is just a few days later on January 19th.
Across the country there have been huge campaigns and protests to remove confederate statues so that states are no longer honoring the violent and racist histories they represent.
For obvious reasons, it has been extremely problematic for states to force Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Day to be observed with a day celebrating the Confederacy.
That being said, Alabama and Mississippi are not the only states to celebrate Lee Day.
Until 2017, Arkansas celebrated the two holidays as one combined day, but they’ve now removed Robert E. Lee’s name from the day. In Arkansas, Lee is now celebrated in a state Memorial Day on the second Saturday of October.
Florida also observes Robert E. Lee Day, but they celebrate it on January 19th.
Virginia formerly celebrated King, Lee, and Stonewall Jackson on the same day, but the state has since created Lee-Jackson Day, which is observed the week before MLK Day.
Georgia celebrated Lee Day on the Friday after Thanksgiving for many years. Now, it’s still a paid holiday, but the state has removed Lee’s name.
Last year, Louisiana voted to remove both Robert E. Lee Day and Confederate Memorial Day from its official list of observed holidays.
Lawmakers have stated that combining the two holidays was a financial decision and also a way to avoid multiple holidays in January.
Why are we still celebrating anything to do with the Confederacy and who thought it was a good idea to put these two, very different, holidays together?
#mlk #mlkday #martinlutherking #holiday #monday #history #media #news #mississippi #alabama #florida #arkansas #louisiana #news #publicmedia #media #blackowned #bipocowned #onsitepublicmedia #fyi #foryou #fyp #foryoupage