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Montana OKS State Holiday Honoring King

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<i> Associated Press</i>

Montana on Friday added a holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to its calendar.

“This is a very important event in Montana history,” said Gov. Stan Stephens as he signed legislation designating the third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The action leaves only three states--North Dakota, New Hampshire and Arizona--without some form of paid state holiday for the civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1968, said Margie Hollums, a staff member at the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission in Atlanta.

The federal holiday honoring King, who was born Jan. 15, 1929, is on the third Monday in January. It was first celebrated in 1986.

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Stephens said the new paid holiday for state workers in Montana is “not only a day honoring Dr. King, but his ideas and the ideas of others who’ve championed civil rights throughout the world.”

“It emphasizes again the inherent need that we respect each other as individuals, regardless of race, creed or national origin,” he said.

State Sen. Harry Fritz of Missoula, a University of Montana history professor who sponsored the bill, said King led “one of the great movements of our time” and had helped extend liberty and equality to Americans of all races.

“It tells not only Montana but the nation that we have a strong commitment to civil rights for all our people,” she said.

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