There's no reasonable defense for this.
, in a pair of Southern states, the legendary civil rights visionary wasn’t the only one being celebrated.
As the country celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, two states will observe a different holiday: King-Lee Day, which commemorates both King and Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The two men’s birthdays fall just four days apart, but their legacies couldn’t be more different. King gave his life to the cause of racial equality; Lee fought in the Civil War to keep Black people enslaved. Nonetheless, Mississippi and Alabama will both mark King-Lee Day as a state holiday.
If there’s a persuasive defense for such a dual holiday, I can’t think of it. King championed the cause of justice and equality; Lee helped lead a deadly rebellion against the United States on behalf of slave owners. We are 158 years removed from the Civil War. The fact that Alabama and Mississippi have an official King-Lee Day holiday is more than a little bewildering.abandoned King-Lee Day in 2018, but it still proclaims the second Saturday in October a “memorial day” for Lee.North Carolinaobserved Lee-Jackson-King Day, adding Confederate general Stonewall Jackson into the mix, until 2000.Lewis V.
What I can’t help but wonder is how long into the future this will continue. Will Mississippi and Alabama continue to celebrate King-Lee Day as a state holiday a generation from now? Two generations? Ten?
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