Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Now They’re Hampering Holidays!

Y
es, they’re hampering holidays now. And, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was among the first to be meddled with.

Needless to say, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and iconic leader of the civil rights movement that took place during the 1950s and 1960s. This visionary leader advocated for civil and economic rights for people of color, as well as an end to legalized racism.  In his final years, he expanded his vision to include opposition toward poverty and the Vietnam War.

Significantly, Dr. King set out to accomplish these goals through non-violent means, such as symbolic protests, civil disobedience, and economic or political noncooperation. And, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent campaign against racism.

The civil rights movement ultimately achieved vital legislative gains with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Martin Luther King Jr’s vision for the civil rights movement is encapsulated in his “I Have a Dream” speech, which he delivered during the groundbreaking March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, on August 28, 1963.

The following passage from Dr. King’s speech is likely seared into your memory:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.[1]

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And if it isn’t seared into your memory, it deserves to be. It’s as historically significant as iconic passages from other history-shaping speeches that we’ve been taught in school.

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Like Abraham Lincoln’s:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
~ from The Gettysburg Address. [2]

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President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s:

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
~ from his first inaugural address, during the Great Depression in 1933.[3]

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Or, Patrick Henry’s:

Give me liberty or give me death.
~ from his speech to the Second Virginia Revolutionary Convention meeting at St. John’s Church, Richmond, on March 23, 1775.[4]

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his speech that has come to be known as “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” delivered on April 3, 1968, in support of a sanitation workers strike in Memphis, Tennessee.[5]

In this speech, Dr. King outlined great moments in history including Egypt, the Roman Empire, the Renaissance, and the Civil War, as well as FDR’s response to the Great Depression. And, he included the moment he was currently living in, noting:

Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee — the cry is always the same: ‘We want to be free. [6]

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While his “I Have a Dream” speech outlines his vision for the civil rights movement, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” addresses tactics the movement was employing to accomplish their goals, and why it was important that they remain non-violent:

We aren’t going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they don’t know what to do…

And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them, and we’d go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and we’d just go on singing, ‘Over my head I see freedom in the air.’ And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons…  and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, ‘We Shall Overcome.’ And every now and then we’d get in jail, and we’d see the jailers looking through the windows, being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power there which Bull Connor [7] couldn’t adjust to. And so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham. Now we’ve got to go on in Memphis just like that. I call upon you to be with us when we go out Monday. [8]

Dr. King’s “I’ve Been to The Mountaintop” speech also makes it clear that the tools at the disposal of the civil rights movement include the practical instrument of economic withdrawal – more commonly known as boycotting.

We don’t have to argue with anybody. We don’t have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don’t need any bricks and bottles. We don’t need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, “God sent us by here, to say to you that you’re not treating his children right. And we’ve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God’s children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.[9]

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“I’ve Been to The Mountaintop” called for boycotts on companies with unfair hiring practices, specifically naming Coca Cola, Sealtest milk, and Wonder Bread. Dr. King also stressed the need to strengthen Black institutions. And, appealed to the audience to move their bank accounts and insurance policies to Black-owned institutions:

We want to have an “insurance-in.”

Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.[10]

Dr. King also speaks of a stabbing he narrowly survived, noting that the tip of the knife blade was sitting against his aorta. He talks about how The New York Times reported that if Dr. King had merely sneezed, he would have died. And, that the article prompted a ninth-grade girl to write a letter that included the line:

I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.[11]

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Discussing this turn of events gave him the opportunity to talk about the success of the marches in Birmingham and Selma. And, how they hac “aroused the conscience of the nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill.”[12]

Near the end of this speech he stated, quite prophetically as it turns out:

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now, I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. So I’m happy tonight, I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.[13]

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This statement was prophetic because Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated the very next morning…  April 4, 1986.

A mere four days after Dr. King’s death, Democratic Congressman from Michigan, John Conyers, proposed legislation to establish a federal holiday in Dr. King’s honor. The bill didn’t pass, but Conyers persisted, year after year for fifteen years.

In 1981 legendary musician Stevie Wonder released the song “Happy Birthday” to rally support for the holiday. And, the song was a hit in more than one sense of the word. It reached #2 on the charts in the UK. And, drove an up-swell of support for a holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the tune of six million signatures.

And in 1983, the 20-year anniversary of the March on Washington, the bill passed and President Ronald Regan signed it. But, it wasn’t until the year 2000 that every state in the Union observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Twenty-five years later, however, President Trump has issued an executive order that hampers the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.[14]

Is Martin Luther King Jr. Day still a holiday? Technically, yes. It would take Congress to cancel a federal holiday. So, banks will still be closed on MLK Day. And, you’ll still have a day off school.

What Trump can do (and has done), however, is halt all activities and special observances in government agencies, for example. He has also removed Martin Luther King Day (as well as Juneteenth) from the list of free admission days at National Parks.

And, it’s important to note that in addition to axing Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, Trump made his birthday a fee-free day.[15]

Why does this matter, if we still get a day off work or school? It matters because as George Orwell points out in this passage from his iconic work 1984 that we’re hearing quite often these days:

Who controls the past, controls the future:
who controls the present controls the past.[16]

Orwell unpacks the phrase above by telling us that it’s the slogan of the totalitarian regime in his dystopian novel, that “mutability of the past” is the central tenet of their doctrine. He notes that, “history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and re-inscribed” as needed to be consistent with the Party’s ideology.[17]  The regime employed this strategy because written records and human memory is where past events survive. [18]

We can see such tactics playing out in the United States these days. For example, Martin Luther King Day has been scraped from the National Park website, which has been re-inscribed with Trump’s birthday (which happens to also be Flag Day) as a free admission day.

And book banning targets works with diverse characters, as well as texts that address racism and other social injustices.

When books about diverse people and the social injustices that revolve around them are removed from classrooms and libraries, it won’t be long before the memories of history-changing individuals like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fade.

And when that happens, there’s little or no push back about re-branding – and therefore erasing – holidays that commemorate them. Just like what’s happening to Flag Day.

Establishing Martin Luther King Day was a hard-won battle. So, let’s be sure to keep his memory alive. Observe MLK Day by reading or listening to his history-making speeches. And, by reading books by him or about him, not to mention those about the civil rights movement he inspired.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s story matters… a lot.  Because his legacy is an important part of our nation’s history. And, reading about Dr. King’s place in that history and his commitment to fighting injustice, ensures that his legacy remains solidly within the national narrative – despite the efforts of those who wish to do otherwise.

#Celebrations        #Martin Luther King Jr.        #The Civil Rights Movement

#Black History Month        #antiracism

ENDNOTES:

[1] Martin Luther King Jr.  “I Have a Dream.” Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/king.dreamspeech.excerpts.pdf

[2] Lincoln, Abraham. “The Gettysburg Address.” National Constitution Center. https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/abraham-lincoln-the-gettysburg-address-1863

[3] Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. “First Inaugural Speech, March 4, 1933.” American Rhetoric.com https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrfirstinaugural.html

[4]“The Speech. Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death Speech by Patrick Henry to the Second Virginia Revolutionary Convention meeting at St. John’s Church, Richmond, on March 23, 1775.” Historic St. John’s Church, 1741. https://www.historicstjohnschurch.org/the-speech/

[5] Martin Luther King Jr. “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/ive-been-mountaintop

[6] Martin Luther King Jr. “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” American Rhetoric. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm

[7] Bull Connor was the commissioner of public safety of Birmingham, Alabama, during the civil rights movement. His position gave him authority over the city’s police and fire departments among other public services. He was a staunch white supremacist, who used his position to uphold legal racial segregation and deny civil rights to Black citizens.  https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/eugene-bull-connor/

[8] Martin Luther King Jr. “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” American Rhetoric. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm

[9] Martin Luther King Jr. “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” American Rhetoric. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm

[10] Martin Luther King Jr. “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” American Rhetoric. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm

[11] Martin Luther King Jr. “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” American Rhetoric. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm

[12] Martin Luther King Jr. “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” American Rhetoric. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm

[13] Martin Luther King Jr. “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” American Rhetoric. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm

[14] Ken Dilanian, Alexandra Marquez, Claretta Bellamy, and Dan De Luce. “Federal Agencies bar Black History Month and other ‘special observances.’” Jan. 31, 2025. NBCnews.com  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/defense-agency-bans-black-history-month-rcna190189

Ogwude, Haadiza. “Did Trump cancel MLK Day? Is it still a federal holiday? What to know.” January 12, 2026. Cincinnati Enquirer. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2026/01/12/did-trump-cancel-mlk-day-when-is-it-is-it-a-federal-holiday/88086083007/

[15] National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/fees.htm

Ogwude, Haadiza. “Did Trump cancel MLK Day? Is it still a federal holiday? What to know.” January 12, 2026. Cincinnati Enquirer. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2026/01/12/did-trump-cancel-mlk-day-when-is-it-is-it-a-federal-holiday/88086083007/

Dilanian, Ken, et al. “Federal agencies bar Black History Month and other ‘special observances’.” January 31, 2026. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/defense-agency-bans-black-history-month-rcna190189

[16] Orwell, George. 1984. Project Gutenberg of Australia, Pg 33.

[17] Orwell, George. 1984. Project Gutenberg of Australia, Pg 39.

[18] Orwell, George. 1984. Project Gutenberg of Australia, Pg 19.

IMAGES:

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day:  Martin Luther King, Jr., delivering “I Have a Dream.” Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/March-on-Washington#/media/1/636444/110480

I Have a Dream: This photograph was made by Rowland Scherman at the March on Washington. The negatives are in the custody of the National Archives., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I’ve Been to the Mountaintop:  Photo by Ian Stauffer on Unsplash

It’s not just about “long white robes over yonder.”:  Photo by Pop & Zebra on Unsplash

I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze:  wayhomestudio on freepik.com

How did the idea for MLK Day emerge:  Photo by Júnior Ferreira on Unsplash

Is MLK Day still a holiday?:  Photo by Joël Edouard on Unsplash

What does George Orwell have to do with Martin Luther King Day?: https://www.bookerworm.com/reviews/149-1984.html

So, keep Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy alive: By Abernathy Family – Abernathy Family Photos, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10063900