This year was a marked turning point in Martin Luther King Day celebrations as I recall them. And it's a holiday with a long and complicated history. Proposed to commemorate King on his birthday, by Senator John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, it was first celebrated locally, January 15, 1969, by the King Memorial Center in Atlanta. Stevie Wonder's song "Happy Birthday" came as a promoter of the bill in 1980. Ronald Reagan finally signed the law modified to take place on the third Monday in January in November 1983, and it was first officially celebrated as a partially national holiday in 1986 (in only 27 states).
The first time I can recall observing it was in a packed Rockefeller Chapel on University of Chicago Campus, singing "We Shall Overcome" and "This little light of mine" on a third January Monday that also fell squarely on King's birthday, Jan 15, 1990.
All that so-called concern about making King more important that the Presidents which kept the law from passing and national commemoration from occurring for some 20 years seems to have drifted away, with the inauguration of The Martin Luther King Memorial monument in Washington D.C. (October 16, 2011), and an American President so obviously inspired by King's dream and community service.
Yesterday, Martin Luther King Day (January 17 in 2012) was observed with various kinds of celebrations, including those by protesters waving "Occupy the Dream" signs.
It also coincided with free on-line access to the Martin Luther King Papers (www.thekingcenter.org). This is a true gift to peace lovers everywhere.
Links
Frances Romero, "A Brief History of Martin Luther King Jr. Day," Time (Monday, Jan 18, 2010).
Washington D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial (www.mlkmemorial.org).
From the Guardian, "Martin Luther King Day marked across the US - in pictures" (Jan 18, 2012).
