The Last State To Hold Out Against Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Civics 101

NHPR

History, Government, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2023

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is publicly revered across the nation, a symbol of civil and human rights worthy of a memorial holiday. Federal and state legislatures have agreed to honor this man. That agreement took awhile. The final state to acquiesce, New Hampshire, resisted the holiday until 1999. The story of that resistance reveals a public sentiment about King and the Black Freedom Struggle that is far from the reverence of today. This is the story of how a man becomes a national symbol, and the fight to make that so. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Civics 101.
0:03.2	I'm Hannah McCarthy.
0:04.7	And today we are doing something a little different.
0:07.6	There is a reporter and producer here at New Hampshire Public Radio where he makes
0:11.0	Civics 101 named Jack Rodelico.
0:13.5	And for the past little while, Jack has been reporting out what I consider a really
0:18.0	interesting good story.
0:20.4	Specifically, and I'm not going to bury the lead here, this is the story of how Martin
0:23.8	Luther King Jr.
0:24.8	came to be a holiday at the federal level and in every state across the country.
0:30.9	And the thing about this particular holiday is that it did not happen overnight.
0:35.4	Nor did it happen without a fight.
0:37.8	And the most epic of those fights, the longest resistance to the holiday honoring Dr. King.
0:43.3	It happened right here where we make this podcast.
0:47.2	Jack got the details.
0:48.2	Hello, Jack Rodelico.
0:49.2	Hello.
0:50.2	It's good to be here with you.
0:51.5	It's good to have you here.
0:52.6	I'm an honored.
0:53.9	I am honored to be a guest.
0:55.1	I'm an honored guest.
	...

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