America Drags Its Feet on MLK Day (1986)

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s January 14th. This day in 1986, Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation that January 15th would be a federal holiday recognizing the contributions of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why it took 20 years since King’s assassination for there to be a federal holiday, and how there was active resistance and subversion among many states even after the federal mandate.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.
0:06.7	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:08.6	This day January 1986 is the issuing of proclamation 541 by the President of the United States,
0:17.0	Ronald Reagan, the proclamation reads,
0:22.0	This year marks the first observance of the Ronald Reagan, the proclamation reads,
0:22.6	this year marks the first observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King
0:26.7	Jr. as a national holiday, it is a time for rejoicing and reflecting.
0:31.6	And then it goes on and on non as proclamations do. The day is as you heard
0:35.4	hooked to MLK's birthday which is actually on January 15th. In
0:39.7	1986 the Monday day off fell on January 20th. We're running this episode on
0:44.3	January 14th, which is the day before this year's MLK day which is actually on
0:48.2	the 15th MLK's actual birthday listeners. Are you confused? Yes.
0:52.3	Yes. Well I'll tell you another thing that had people
0:55.2	confused why did it take until 1986 for the federal government to actually
0:59.2	commemorate MLK's life and legacy with a holiday of this nature and it was oh almost another 15 years
1:05.0	before every part of this country actually acknowledged
1:08.0	MLK Day as a full-fledged holiday
1:10.0	and a bunch of states tried to pull some really shameful shenanigans to not have to
1:14.6	recognize a day honoring a civil rights leader.
1:18.2	So let's talk about the long arc towards MLK day and what the day now means some almost 40 years after that initial proclamation.
1:28.0	Here as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson with a brand new knee back of Wesley.
1:36.0	Hello there, happy MLK Day, Kelly, nice to have you back.
	...

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