King's Day Was a Long Time Coming

City offices, schools and libraries are closed Monday, marking the 25th year that Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been celebrated as a federal holiday. Some Beach Cities residents may now take the holiday for granted, but it took legislators nearly two decades to pass it into law.  

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan introduced the first legislation seeking to establish a federal holiday in memory of Dr. King's January birthday just months after the civil rights leader was assassinated in 1968.

As petitions in support of the holiday were gathered, individual states (Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut) began to pass their own legislation celebrating the holiday.

The holiday proposal was presented to Congress three years after Conyers first introduced the concept. And that’s where the bill sat for eight years.

Coretta Scott King testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Joint Hearings of Congress in support of the bill in 1979. But a few months later, the U.S. House of Representatives voted against the holiday.

As many thought the fight was over, singer Stevie Wonder released a hit record titled “Happy Birthday” in 1980, which became a rallying cry for the King holiday bill.

He joined Coretta as she handed petitions to Congress with more than 6 million signatures in support of the bill. This time, the holiday passed the House.

After passing the Senate, then-President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law in 1983, and the first official holiday was observed on the third Monday in January 1986.

Now, the day has joined the league of other three-day weekend federal holidays when the community stops to remember the meaning of the day.

The video attached is a look at how the prestigious Buckley School in Sherman Oaks chose to educate its students about MLK but it's educational and eye-opening for adults, too.

Here's a timeline for how the MLK holiday came to be, from the nonprofit King Center:

 April 8, 1968 – Legislation providing for a Federal Martin Luther King Jr. Day is introduced just four days after King’s assassination.

 April 1971 – A 3-million-signature petition is submitted to Congress seeking a national holiday in honor of King, but no action is taken.

 1973 – Washington becomes the first state to establish a state holiday in honor of King.

 1979 – King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, testifies before Congress in support of a holiday, but legislation to establish a King holiday fails by five votes.

 1980  - Stevie Wonder urges a King holiday with the song, “Happy Birthday.”

1982 – Wonder and King's widow submit a 6-million-signature petition to Congress, urging a national King holiday.

 1983 – Congress passes a bill establishing the holiday and Pres. Ronald Reagan signs it into law.

 1989 – 44 states honor the national holiday.

 2000 – South Carolina became the last state to recognize the national holiday.