https://www.axios.com/2023/01/16/mlk-day-states-confederate-holidays-slavery
The states that celebrate both MLK Day and confederate holidays
Confederate holidays include Robert E. Lee's birthday, Confederate Memorial
Day, Confederate Heroes Day (Texas), Nathan Bedford Forrest Day (Tennessee),
Jefferson Davis' birthday; Data: State government calendars, Axios research;
Cartogram: Shoshana Gordon and Jacque Schrag/Axios Visuals
Ten states — all in the American South — celebrate Martin Luther King Day and
observe at least one confederate holiday during the rest of the year.
Why it matters: All U.S. states honor MLK every year. But the number of states
also honoring the Confederacy highlights the country's struggle to reconcile
its racial past.
What's happening: Alabama and Mississippi celebrate MLK and Robert E. Lee
<https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/news/2017/08/13/ap-explains-how-robert-e-lee-went-hero-racist-icon/563416001/>,
the losing Confederate general and slaveholder, on the same day.
Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee
and Texas all have at least one day commemorating the Confederacy on other days
of the year, the Axios analysis found.
Mississippi
<https://casetext.com/regulation/mississippi-administrative-code/title-27-state-personnel-board/part-120-mississippi-state-employee-handbook/chapter-3-holidays-and-leave/section-27-120-31-holidays>
and Alabama <https://www.personnel.alabama.gov/downloads/stateholidays.pdf>
each celebrate a total of three confederate holidays every year — Robert E. Lee
Day, Confederate Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis' Birthday — all paid holidays
<https://casetext.com/regulation/mississippi-administrative-code/title-27-state-personnel-board/part-120-mississippi-state-employee-handbook/chapter-3-holidays-and-leave/section-27-120-31-holidays>
for state employees.
Last February in Alabama, a bipartisan group of state senators introduced
legislation to split up Robert E. Lee Day and MLK Day, but the bill is
"indefinitely postponed <https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/SB163/2022>."
The intrigue: In 2000,
<https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/how-martin-luther-king-jr-s-birthday-became-a-holiday-3#:~:text=The%20fight%20to%20make%20the%20Martin%20Luther%20King%20Jr.&text=King%27s%20birthday%20was%20finally%20approved,the%20third%20Monday%20in%20January.>
when South Carolina became one of the last states to honor MLK with a state
holiday, the legislature also voted
<https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t53c005.php> to create "Confederate Memorial
Day," celebrated annually on May 10.
Tennessee has a day of "special observance
<https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/2021/title-15/chapter-2/section-15-2-101/>"
for Nathan Bedford Forrest
<https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/nathan-bedford-forrest>,
another Confederate general and the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Though Arkansas split up
<https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/arkansas-ends-robert-e-lee-martin-luther-king-jr-holiday-n736976>
Robert E. Lee Day and MLK day in 2017, the state still commemorates
<https://law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/2020/title-1/chapter-5/section-1-5-106/>
Lee on the second Saturday in October, as well as Jefferson Davis on June 3.
For years, Georgia listed Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lee Day on its
official state holiday calendar. Since 2016
<https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/09/us/georgia-confederate-memorial-holiday-feat/>,
the state has changed both holiday names to the innocuous-sounding "State
Holiday."
Georgia state law
<https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2020/title-1/chapter-4/section-1-4-1/>
requires the governor to pronounce at least one day dedicated to honoring the
Confederacy.
Zoom out: Defenders of the confederate holidays and monuments say removing them
would erase history
<https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2021/12/03/buildings-honoring-segregationists-wont-get-rename>.
Reality check: Historians and scholars
<https://www.axios.com/2021/03/19/commission-renaming-army-bases-makeover> say
the confederate holidays and monuments in the South mostly appeared well after
the Civil War as confederate apologists pushed the Lost Cause narrative
downplaying slavery.
What they're saying: "It is a diminishing reality that people even recognize
and celebrate those Confederate days," NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson
told Axios.
"We must completely do away with any concept that the Confederacy and those who
participated were patriots."
DaMareo Cooper, co-executive director of The Center for Popular Democracy
<https://www.populardemocracy.org/>, said it was hypocritical for any state to
honor King while celebrating those who defended enslavement.
"There's no way that you can compare someone who literally fought for the
highest ideals of human beings ... to someone who was like, 'I think these
humans are checkbooks, they are cow, they're like animals.'"
Don't forget: While many remaining historic sites in the South dedicated to
confederates are well kept, many sites linked to civil rights
<https://www.axios.com/2023/01/07/mississippi-civil-rights-sites-national-park-service>
and the victorious Union North
<https://www.normantranscript.com/news/in-north-some-civil-war-sites-events-long-forgotten/article_3694817f-ac64-5007-88ca-686e2be2d33d.html>
sit abandoned or in disarray.
