When Jimmy Carter won the 1976 presidential election, King supporters had hoped he would be swayed to act by his debt to the unions, which had played a major role in his victory.
By the early 70s, the United Autoworkers and AFSCME, two of the country’s largest unions, had made the King holiday a regular demand in contract negotiations. When King was killed in Memphis, Tennessee, he was there to back striking sanitation workers who were pushing for higher wages among other work reforms.Īt a New York General Motors plant, a small group of auto workers refused to labor on King’s birthday one year after his death, and thousands of hospital workers launched a strike until managers agreed to make it a paid holiday. The leader had been a strong labor union supporter and set the demand for fair wages and “full employment” as a centerpiece of his activism. Yet by 1981 only 13 states had recognized it - to some degree.Īs early as 1969, Black and brown union workers had begun to agitate in favor of the King holiday. By 1973, King’s hometown of Atlanta had designated the day as a legal holiday. 15 birthday a holiday ( they claim they were the first government body in the U.S. On the day of King’s funeral, one south New Jersey town’s school board swiftly passed a resolution declaring his Jan. Instantaneously, both official and unofficial memorials and commemorations cropped up in cities and towns across the country.
Day 2021 with free admission to national parks