JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Mississippi and Alabama are the only remaining states with a single holiday, in January, to honor both Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert E. Lee.
Arkansas also had the dual holiday for the civil rights leader and the Confederate general, but Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson recently signed a bill removing Lee as an honoree. The new law also expands requirements for what Arkansas schools will teach children about the Civil War and civil rights.
“I expected this debate would divide us, but instead during the debate we listened to each other and the conversation brought us together,” Hutchinson said before signing the bill March 21.
No bills were filed in Mississippi this year to remove Lee from the state’s dual holiday, and some lawmakers say they don’t expect to see a change anytime soon.
The chairwoman of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus, Democratic Rep. Sonya Williams-Barnes of Gulfport, said a bigger concern for caucus members is removing the Confederate battle emblem that has been on the state flag since 1894 - a political argument that has waged for years with no end in sight.
“It does seem like the remainder of the nation is moving forward as Mississippi continues to live in the past and remain last,” Williams-Barnes said of Arkansas moving to a holiday only for King.
Mississippi enacted a law in 1987 to create the dual observance by adding Martin Luther King Jr. to the Robert E. Lee holiday that had existed since 1910.
Democratic state Sen. Hillman Frazier of Jackson, who was in the state House at the time, sponsored the legislation and it was ignored by leadership the first year. Black lawmakers filibustered to bring attention to the push for a King holiday. Frazier said creating a dual holiday was a way to address criticism Mississippi could not afford another paid day off for government employees.
Democratic Rep. Ed Blackmon of Canton was in the House when the dual holiday was created. He said this year that he thinks Mississippi is “a couple of election cycles away” from removing Lee from the dual holiday.
“Nobody celebrates Robert E. Lee,” Blackmon said. “There are no barbecues held. There is no speechmaking or merrymaking. … There are no Robert E. Lee sales at the mall. I just don’t believe there is that strong emotional attachment to Robert E. Lee as there is to the (state) flag.”
To be fair, some people do celebrate Lee - and not only on a single day.
“January is the month we honor Generals Robert E. Lee & Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson,” the Mississippi Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans says on its website.
Biloxi officials were on the receiving end of a social media storm this year when a city Twitter account said local government offices would be closed for “Great Americans Day” when most of the nation was honoring King. The name came from a city ordinance adopted in 1985 - two years after creation of the federal holiday honoring King. Just before this year’s MLK holiday parade in Biloxi, the City Council voted to ditch “Great Americans Day.”
As he signed the bill in Arkansas, Hutchinson said he was not looking to re-evaluate any other symbols of the Civil War, including Confederate memorials or a star on the Arkansas flag that represents the Confederacy.
Even if Lee were to eventually be removed from the holiday in Mississippi, the state still has a holiday to mark its attempt at secession. State employees get a paid day off the last Monday in April - Confederate Memorial Day.
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Emily Wagster Pettus has covered Mississippi government and politics since 1994. Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus .
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