20 Years Later, King Day Holds True to Its Purpose

Twenty years since its first observance, Martin Luther King Day has been defined by observers not only as a day of remembrance, but one of action.

Although other national holidays have become dominated by picnics and shopping, the nation’s youngest holiday has avoided extensive commercialization. And that’s no accident.

Before the nation ever celebrated the first holiday commemorating the life and philosophy of the slain civil rights leader in 1986, supporters worked to ensure the day’s purpose would not be overshadowed.

“We began to say, ‘Why can’t the King holiday really be a day for people to get out and help people? Why can’t it be remember, celebrate and act, but also a day of interracial harmony and, above all, service?’ ” said Lloyd Davis, a little-known federal official who was a principal architect of the day.

“It was step by step, brick by brick, trying to build a holiday that would do justice to everything Dr. King represented,” said Davis, who served as executive director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission. “It would not sensationalize, but it would make the holiday part of the American conscience, a day of meaning and character.”

Martin Luther King Day -- or MLK Day, as some call it -- is distinguished from other holidays in numerous ways. Two out of three companies in America still don’t give their employees the day off. It is the only holiday named for an individual; even George Washington has to share Presidents Day.

The holiday calls the nation to its highest values and celebrates “the idealism which shaped the Constitution and the Declaration on Independence,” said the Rev. James Lawson, who worked with King and heads the L.A. chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King founded.

Over two decades of King days, people nationwide have refurbished homeless shelters, conducted voter registration drives, cleaned up beaches.

This year, the old will once more mentor the young, the well, and visit the sick; others will find their way to gala dinners, churches, synagogues, parades.

In Irvine, King Day observers plan to glean a field to provide food for the hungry; other volunteers will pack food boxes that will be delivered to those in need.

In Philadelphia, a house will be built for delivery to a family in the Gulf Coast region whose housing was affected by last year’s hurricanes.

King Day may be the only U.S. holiday with such a diverse nationwide network of handlers. Like watchful parents, they continue to steer the holiday toward the destiny they envisioned -- and away from the very American tradition of holidays losing their meaning as they become more entrenched.

“I’m pleased that it hasn’t deteriorated to another bargain day at the mall or a shopping day,” said Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), who in 1968 introduced the first bill to name a holiday after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers. In the aftermath of his death, Conyers asked himself, “What’s the highest honor that this government can pay this farsighted, courageous, inspiring leader?”

Four days after his death, Conyers, with the approval of King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, introduced a bill to name a holiday in King’s honor.

Lawson, who had invited King to Memphis to assist in the strike, helped organize a march on the first anniversary of his death in 1969, with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) as the keynote speaker. Such marches were held in other parts of the country. People who had marched with King marched in his memory -- and later marched for a day in his honor.

At the heart of the effort was Coretta Scott King. A long list of entertainers lent support: Harry Belafonte, John Denver, Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder.

In 1980, Wonder wrote and recorded “Happy Birthday,” a rallying cry for a holiday in King’s honor. Staunch resistance came from those who argued against the day because of cost or, more often, King’s character. Opponents, led by now-retired Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), called King a communist sympathizer and philanderer. That effort failed, and in 1983 the legislation passed: 338 to 90 in the House and 78 to 22 in the Senate.

The contentious battle for the day stole the headlines, but another struggle was occurring behind the scenes. Architects of the holiday began shaping its image even before President Reagan reluctantly signed the bill.

The White House suggested a public school named after abolitionist Frederick Douglass as the site for the signing. Supporters resisted, reasoning that holding the ceremony at a predominately black public school would signal that the day was a “black holiday.” Reagan signed the bill in the Rose Garden.

“It’s not a black holiday,” Davis said. “It’s a holiday for the people of America and the world. It was more appropriate in that Rose Garden setting.”

As the first observance approached in 1986, the holiday commission faced the task of not only fashioning the day, but fighting a more subtle problem that author Matthew Dennis identified in his book “Red, White and Blue Letter Days, An American Calendar.”

“As they become less contentious, less ‘political,’ holidays may become more entrenched and universal but also blander, less meaningful,” he wrote.

In the years immediately after King Day joined the calendar, some advertisers and retailers might have steered clear because of its controversy. The commission worked to further the gap between commerce and King Day, asking business interests to refrain from using the day for marketing.

“We asked them to help us police the holiday,” Davis said. “If people started to turn it into a day for bargain sales, we asked them to politely urge, in the name of Dr. King, not to make it a commercial day.”

Now, 20 years later, a “King Day Sale” is still a rare thing.

“I think this is too new and too recent in people’s memories for it to become a day that turns into that and not a day of reflection,” said Shari Anne Brill, head of programming at Carat USA, a communications company. “Linking his memory to a sale would seem really ... opportunistic.”

Commission members promoted service as an alternative to shopping and loafing, a notion straight from King’s philosophy.

“Everybody can be great because everybody can serve,” King once said. “You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.... You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.... “

In 1994, at the urging of Coretta Scott King, Congress passed and President Clinton signed the King Holiday and Service Act, which established the holiday as a day of community service, interracial cooperation and youth anti-violence efforts. Congress also charged the Corporation for National & Community Service, a federal agency, with the job of helping to promote service on King Day.

Holidays present a conundrum for some businesses. King Day, coming so soon after Christmas and New Year’s, can be especially tricky. Small businesses might find it difficult to offer another paid day off.

Alan Minton, another past executive director of the commission, said the body offered such businesses alternatives, such as asking employees to come to work, but conducting a blood drive on the premises.

This year the town of Bloomington, Ind., where Minton lives, will offer 20 service projects in observance of the King holiday. “That means to me that we did a pretty good job if we were able, from Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, to get a message out to Bloomington, Ind.,” said Minton, who heads a software company.

There are places in the nation that do not observe the holiday.

Though more businesses will grant workers a paid day off today than ever before -- 31%, up from 14% in 1986 -- the day isn’t a day of leisure such as Labor Day or the Fourth of July.

Those figures come from a survey by the Bureau of National Affairs Inc., a private group. The survey found a slight decline among manufacturers, with 5% offering workers a paid day off, compared with 6% last year.

Some businesses, such as the Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, do not offer King Day as a paid holiday but allow employees to use a floating holiday to observe the day.

Some initial opponents of the holiday now support it. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), called his vote against the day “one of the worst decisions I have made as a senator.”

In addition to service, observances prepare people to serve and become involved, a civil rights tradition.

“During the movement, they called them citizenship education programs,” said Yolanda King. “People were actually taught the skills of nonviolence.”

In Seattle, the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee calls for observers to confront today’s problems with the theme “Racism Poverty, War: Katrina, Iraq, No More!”

In Santa Monica, Lawson was invited to speak Sunday morning at Calvary Baptist Church, which for the last 14 years has worshiped with a synagogue in observance of King Day.

“I think that kind of thing is increasing,” he said. “There are people who are looking at the ... day from the spiritual, moral, political meaning.”

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King Day events

These are some of the events scheduled today in Los Angeles County to commemorate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

9 a.m.: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa speaks at the Martin Luther King Jr. prayer breakfast presented by the African American Catholic Center for Evangelization; Verbum Dei High School, 11100 S. Central Ave., Los Angeles.

9 a.m.: King’s daughter, Yolanda, speaks at a ceremony presented by the Martin Luther King Jr. Westside Coalition; Soka Gakai International Auditorium, 525 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. It concludes with a march to the Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., where a new auditorium named for the slain civil rights leader will be dedicated.

10 a.m.: Higher Ground Productions and Agape International Spiritual Center sponsor workshops and panel discussions throughout the day, including a 5:30 p.m. discussion on entertainment and a 7 p.m. lecture-performance by Yolanda King; Agape International Spiritual Center, 5700 Buckingham Parkway, Culver City.

11 a.m.: The 21st annual Kingdom Day Parade and community festival sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality begins on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at Western Avenue and ends at the festival site, Crenshaw Boulevard at Vernon Avenue in Los Angeles.

Noon: Kaiser Permanente sponsors an employee lunch program featuring Pastor Jean Birch of Community Bible Church; Kaiser Permanente regional offices, 393 E. Walnut St., Pasadena.

2 p.m.: The Museum of Tolerance screens the 2004 documentary “Citizen King,” followed by a discussion by religious leaders and community activists; 1399 S. Roxbury Drive, Los Angeles.

2 p.m.: The Los Angeles Board of Public Works dedicates a 30-foot mural depicting the city’s cultural history; Vision Theater, 3341 W. 43rd Place, Leimert Park.

4 p.m.: The city of West Hollywood presents “The Road to Civil Rights,” a ceremony honoring King and Rosa Parks and featuring a screening of “Negros with Guns” and readings by winners of the fifth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Poetry Festival; West Hollywood Community Center at Plummer Park, 7377 Santa Monica Blvd.

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Los Angeles Times