MLK Day, Observed
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“Government offices will be closed in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Schools will be closed in observance of Jackson-Lee Day.”
A few years ago, I was in Memphis on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I looked at this as an opportunity to get a glimpse into one of the most important tragic events in our national history, and planned to go down to Beale Street for the evening celebration. When I asked a few people (white people) about parking and other logistics, they all said, “Oh, you don’t want to go down there tonight. Trust me.” They didn’t elaborate, but I could smell the fear and mistrust. Their eyes said, “If you, a white man from out of town, go down there tonight, you will be a target.”
Later that day, while in northern Mississippi, I saw one of the small community newspapers. In the information box in the bottom left corner of the front page was the following: “Government offices will be closed in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Schools will be closed in observance of Jackson-Lee Day.”
Come again? What the hell is “Jackson-Lee Day?” I asked one of the local Mississippi residents about it, and she explained that it was a day to honor the Confederate heroes Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and that several southern states had either instituted the holiday or were considering it. Some states were talking about placing it on the preceding Friday, to create a four-day weekend, but others were adamant about having it on the same day as MLK day, to make it clear that Lee and Jackson were just as important to their history as Dr. King was. She ended by saying, “I look at it this way. I’m from the South. And we need our heroes, too.”
Considering my Yankee history, I was appalled. It seemed as if her statement equated “us white folk” with the South, completely negating any contributions made by blacks. “We need our heroes, too” drew a clear adversarial line between black and white. It felt like the War was still going on. I guess in some people’s minds, it still is. The prevalence of Confederate flag license plates and window stickers on the streets of Memphis and its Mississippi suburbs attests to that.
Of course, I went down to Beale Street, in direct defiance of the locals’ advice. Most of the people I saw were black, and I was stark Colorado white. No one bothered me, and everyone was nice to me. I ate a burger at B.B. King’s, and I got a cool shirt covered with guitars in one of the gift shops.
Clearly, some southern folk do know the War is over. And they aren’t white.
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January 18th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
I grew up in Georgia, and I’ve always been disappointed in the way many Southerners still try to argue that the Civil War wasn’t really about slavery. They say it was really about economics. Which is technically true, but only in the sense that the South had a competitive advantage thanks to SLAVE LABOR! Some also try to argue that it wasn’t that bad being a slave, that because it was an investment, slave owners had an incentive to take care of slaves. So what? A mule was an investment, too, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be treated like one.
MLK is hero enough for me.
January 19th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Better than my co-worker, who asked if the company observed
MLK day. Then he asked about James Earl Ray day.
January 26th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
There are two things about this deserving mention:
1) I fully think MLK [and indeed the whole Civil Rights movement] deserve memorialization. It is just that MLK was born in the wrong month. In the USA, you just get off New Year’s vacation, and you have another holiday — then it is a long, dreary slog to Memorial Day in May. It would be so much more effective if the equivalent to a MLK Day was placed in late February or early March. Incidentally, in Canada, almost everywhere in February there is some sort of holiday [though it is not a national one], and Easter in late March or early April is a federal holiday, and generally celebrated — so we don’t have to wait nearly so long for our next break, which comes on Victoria Day — or The Queen’s Birthday — which is close to the USA Memorial Day.
2) For all those people in the south of the USA who defend the display of the Confederate battle emblem as part of their state flag as just “part of their historical heritage”, my question is: Where were all you nice folk when Federal marshals had to escort little girls to desegregated schools in the face of angry mobs waving the Confederate flag? There is such a thing as allowing a symbol to be usurped and demeaned — and that is the most charitable interpretation that can be given in this case. However arrived at, the Confederate battle emblem, certainly to those outside the USA, as well as to many in it, stands for an ignorant, hatred-filled racism.
January 27th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Ya’ll feel better now?
I believe Dr. Kings message was consideration and respect for
all God’s children.
Lay down your swords and quit fighting.
January 27th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
Um … correct me if I’m wrong, CharlottesWeb, but I think all of us are in agreement, not fighting about this. John just thinks the day should be in a different month, I think.
April 3rd, 2006 at 3:41 pm
I suffered thru 13 MLK Jr day assemblies in school, and well I will agree that MLK Jr. was a great man, I don’t believe he was worth closure of the government in tribute. I’ve said it before, I’m not racist. I just don’t think I should be inconvenienced by the celebration.