#  Why a National Holiday Was the One of the Worst Things to Happen to MLK, Jr.

     Details    Lawrence Ware   ![logo](https://mail.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         January 20 2025      [  ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Jan-2025/006j.jpg#joomlaImage://local-images/stories/Jan-2025/006j.jpg?width=1342&height=898)    ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/la-election-2022/30226-why-a-national-holiday-was-the-one-of-the-worst-things-to-happen-to-mlk-jr)

  [POLITICS](https://mail.citywatchla.com/la-election-2022)   - [  Previous Article **Calling All Independents: A New Dawn Is Here** ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30242:calling-all-independents-a-new-dawn-is-here&catid=396)
- [  Next Article **Biden Preemptively Pardons Members of January 6 Panel, Other Trump Targets** ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30220:biden-preemptively-pardons-members-of-january-6-panel-other-trump-targets&catid=396)

  ###### Typography

- [](# "Smaller Font")  ****Smaller** **Small** **Medium** **Big** **Bigger****  [](# "Bigger Font")
- [](# "Previous Font Style")  ****Default** **Helvetica** **Segoe** **Georgia** **Times****  [](# "Next Font Style")

- [ Reading Mode](# "Reading Mode")

> <a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a><a class="a2a_button_print"></a>[](https://www.addtoany.com/share)
>
>  [Comments](#disqus_thread)

 MLK DAY - The Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday is one of the worst things that happened to the man’s legacy.

Let’s me be clear: King was a radical.

Go to a MLK celebration these days and you will hear Black politicians using this holiday as a platform to run for Office. Most white pastors use the day as a time to get in a pulpit and talk to their mostly white congregations about King’s dream about racial harmony, ignoring all the other things he wrote and said about his disappointment with how White people embodied Christianity. Or worse yet, they will ask a Black minister to do it, and a Black minister will tap dance for the white listeners, allowing them to leave the white church, drive home to their white communities and feel like they are a friend to Black people.

But it needs to be said again: King was a radical.

About the America treats the poor, the man said, “there must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a Democratic Socialism.” He also asked, “What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter if you can’t afford to buy a hamburger?” and “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”

That won’t be said at the local MLK celebration.

Toward the end of his life, when thinking about what he accomplished and seeing how white America was treating Black people,[ he said](https://www.tiktok.com/@k_coop11/video/7189270358074215723?lang=en) “I’ve come to believe we are integrating into a burning house,” making it plain that he was not as optimistic about race relations in May of 1967 as he was when he gave his “I have a dream speech in August of 1963.

Given the radicality of his thought, I wonder if King would recognize the man America valorizes on January 20. To understand why King is portrayed as a gentle dreamer instead of an angry prophet, we have to understand what concession were made to get the King hoiliday in the first place.

The first time a bill to have a King holiday was proposed in congress, it was introduced by Representative John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, and Senator Edward Brooke, a Republican from Massachusetts in 1979. That bill failed by five votes. A bill was finally passed in 1983, but not before Republicans opposed the bill, [openly asking](https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/15-year-battle-martin-luther-king-jr-day)whether King was important enough to receive such an honor.

To get enough votes from the Republican controlled Senate and a signature from President Ronald Regan, advocates for the King National holiday were forced to highlight his unifying rhetoric to the detriment of his actual thoughts on things like universal healthcare and economic justice.

We don’t honor the real Martin Luther King, Jr. anymore. We honor the King that does not offend white people, and that is why this holiday is one of the worst things to happen to his legacy.

There is a danger in reducing any person’s life and work to a sound bite or any single speech or essay. To fully appreciate a thinker as complex as King, we must consider the totality of his work. Not just something he said one day in August.

(Lawrence Ware is a professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University. He is also the Associate Director of the University’s Center for Africana Studies. He can be reached at: <Law.writes@gmail.com>. This article was first featured in CounterPunch.org.)

  - [  Previous Article **Calling All Independents: A New Dawn Is Here** ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30242:calling-all-independents-a-new-dawn-is-here&catid=396)
- [  Next Article **Biden Preemptively Pardons Members of January 6 Panel, Other Trump Targets** ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30220:biden-preemptively-pardons-members-of-january-6-panel-other-trump-targets&catid=396)
<div data-id="1" 
	class="eb-inst eb-hide eb-emailform eb-1 eboxContentLocker"
	data-options='{"trigger":"onPageLoad","trigger_selector":"","delay":3000,"early_trigger":true,"scroll_depth":"percentage","scroll_depth_value":80,"firing_frequency":1,"reverse_scroll_close":true,"threshold":0,"close_out_viewport":false,"exit_timer":1000,"idle_time":10000,"close_on_esc":false,"animation_open":"slideInDown","animation_close":"fadeOutDown","animation_duration":400,"disable_page_scroll":true,"test_mode":false,"debug":false,"ga_tracking":true,"ga_tracking_id":"G-P16BQ7X1SW","ga_tracking_event_category":"EngageBox","ga_tracking_event_label":"Box #1 - Global Email Signup Form","auto_focus":false}'
	data-type='popup'
	>

	<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-outside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>
	<div class="eb-dialog eb-formVer" role="dialog" aria-modal="true" id="dialog1" aria-label="dialog1">
		
		<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-inside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>	
		<div class="eb-container">
						<div class="eb-content">
				
<form action="https://citywatchla.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=34d69f33624fd058ee9b56516&amp;id=4bfa422f51&amp;f_id=00d6c2e1f0" class="eb" method="post" id="mcform-1" name="mcform-1" target="_blank">
			<div class="eb-form-header"><p><img src="/images/2023/06/be-a-city-watcher.png" alt="be a city watcher" width="350" height="97" loading="lazy" data-path="local-images:/2023/06/be-a-city-watcher.png"></p>
<p>Sign up to receive our special e-news blasts on Monday and Thursday evenings!</p></div>
	
					<div class="eb-field-row">

			
			
			
			<input class="eb-input" type="email" name="EMAIL"  placeholder="Email address"  id="EMAIL" value="" required>

			
		</div>
										
	<div class="eb-footer">
    	<button class="eb-btn" type="submit" name="subscribe" style="background-color:rgba(93, 183, 93, 1);color:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1)">
    		Sign up    	</button>
    </div>
</form>			</div>
		</div>
	</div>	
</div>
<div data-id="3" 
	class="eb-inst eb-hide eb-yesno eb-3 "
	data-options='{"trigger":"onScrollDepth","trigger_selector":"","delay":0,"early_trigger":false,"scroll_depth":"percentage","scroll_depth_value":80,"firing_frequency":2,"reverse_scroll_close":false,"threshold":0,"close_out_viewport":false,"exit_timer":1000,"idle_time":1000,"close_on_esc":false,"animation_open":"fadeInUp","animation_close":"fadeOut","animation_duration":300,"disable_page_scroll":false,"test_mode":false,"debug":false,"ga_tracking":true,"ga_tracking_id":"G-P16BQ7X1SW","ga_tracking_event_category":"EngageBox","ga_tracking_event_label":"Box #3 - Yes \/ No Donation Popup Box","auto_focus":false}'
	data-type='popup'
	>

	<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-outside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>
	<div class="eb-dialog " role="dialog" aria-modal="true" id="dialog3" aria-label="dialog3">
		
		<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-inside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>	
		<div class="eb-container">
						<div class="eb-content">
				
<div class="ebox-yes-no">
	<div class="ebox-yn-text">
		
		
		<div class="ebox-yn-headline" style="font-size:22px;color:#888888">
			<p>If you only give once a month, would you consider giving to CityWatch?</p>
<p>Your support fuels our mission to promote and facilitate civic engagement and neighborhood empowerment, and to hold area government and its politicians accountable.</p>
<p>Would you like to help? Even if you can only give $5, it will make a difference.</p>		</div>
			</div>
	
	<div class="ebox-ys-buttons" style="font-size: 16px;">
		
<a
					data-ebox-prevent="0"
		data-ebox-cmd="close"
				target="_self"
		href="https://www.citywatchla.com/donate"
		rel="noopener"
	
	
	
	
	class="ebox-ys-btn"
	style="background-color:#2ec664;color:#ffffff;min-width:100px">
	Yes
	</a>
<a
	
	
			data-ebox-cmd="close"
		href="#"
	
	
	class="ebox-ys-btn"
	style="background-color:#ef2345;color:#ffffff;min-width:100px">
	Not Right Now
	</a>	</div>

	</div>			</div>
		</div>
	</div>	
</div>