Canceling King Holiday Creates a Stir

Students in a Richmond suburb will make up a snow day on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, prompting protests from the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Chesterfield County School Supt. Billy K. Cannaday Jr., who is black, announced the decision this week. He said rigorous new state graduation requirements make it necessary for the schools to make up snow days before testing periods begin in the spring. King Day, a federal and state holiday that falls on Jan. 20, was the first available date after the Christmas vacation.

“It reinforces for me, as an African American, Dr. King’s strong belief in education as an equalizer,” Cannaday said Wednesday.

Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia ACLU, said the decision is a matter of sensitivity to race relations.

“I think for many it will be suspicious that the first holiday to be sacrificed to make up for inclement weather days is Martin Luther King Day,” Willis said.

King Salim Khalfani, state director of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, called the decision “shortsighted and insensitive.”

Khalfani said Cannaday needs to “reclaim his heritage and learn something from all of this.”

“To totally dismiss [the holiday] for a snow day and say that Dr. King was a supporter of education makes a mockery of King,” he said.

Twenty-four percent of the county’s nearly 54,000 students are black, a Chesterfield schools spokeswoman said. She said she had not received any complaints from parents about the holiday cancellation.