15,000 in Arizona Celebrate at Breakfast Honoring King
The mayor’s seventh annual breakfast honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took on a different tone this year.
No one talked about struggles at the Legislature or the polls. No one lamented the state’s damaged reputation and lost opportunities. No one locked arms and sang “We Shall Overcome.”
Instead, the 15,000 people at Friday’s event cheered, danced and applauded a fireworks display as they marked the end to Arizona’s five-year disregard of the holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader.
Voters passed a referendum in November making Monday a paid state holiday, and making Arizona the last state to so honor either King or the civil rights movement.
“This is a grand celebration,” Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson told the crowd at the America West Arena during a four-hour multicultural musical tribute to King highlighted by an appearance by entertainer Stevie Wonder.
Johnson said the state had come a long way from January, 1987, when then-Gov. Evan Mecham canceled Arizona’s just-enacted holiday, triggering a nationwide convention and tourism boycott of the state. Now, Johnson said, the state can be proud of being the only one where the King holiday was established by a popular vote.
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