Since 1986, the third Monday of each January has been observed as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. While today it may seem obvious that such a groundbreaking leader and activist would have his legacy and achievements celebrated on the national level, the drawn-out process to approve this federal holiday is one that is less known.
Although King is rightfully venerated across American life in 2025, he was a controversial figure at the time of his tragic 1968 assassination in Memphis. While multiple bills calling for the holiday were introduced immediately following King's passing—and for years afterward—none actually went to a vote until 1979. Despite growing support for this bill, that House vote fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for its passage.
Individual states recognized holidays in honor of Dr. King as early as 1973, but progress at the federal level was held back by worries over cost and—in some quarters—lingering concerns surrounding his political associations.
Instead it took grassroots organizing from the labor movement, civil rights advocates, and Dr. King’s family to create real momentum on the subject. Memphis labor union leader William Lucy—whose strike King was supporting in Memphis at the time of his shooting—advocated for the holiday on the basis of MLK's significance to the working class. Workers at automotive plants, hospitals, and textile factories across the country successfully negotiated new contracts in the following years that included paid holidays on King's birthday.
In 1976, Coretta Scott King and the King Center followed up on this relationship and formed a coalition with the AFL-CIO to create a legislative agenda with an MLK birthday celebration holiday as its centerpiece. When President Jimmy Carter was elected, due in part to the political alliance between union members and Black Americans, he officially endorsed Representative John Conyers’s 1979 national holiday bill. However, this still wasn’t enough.
Stymied by the official process, the King family went in a different direction: soliciting support from celebrities and the larger American public. In 1980, iconic musician Stevie Wonder released his platinum record "Hotter than July." The album featured the song "Happy Birthday," an explicit call for Dr. King’s birthday to be celebrated as a national holiday of peace and unity. The album’s liner notes featured a plea to honor MLK’s legacy that included the following language:
“I and a growing number of people believe that it is time for our country to adopt legislation that will make January 15, Martin Luther King's birthday, a national holiday, both in recognition of what he achieved and as a reminder of the distance which still has to be traveled.”
The track was a massive hit and is now regarded as one of Wonder’s signature songs, but his activism on the issue continued with the Rally for Peace on the National Mall in Washington, DC that was attended by more than 25,000. Coretta Scott King and Wonder even presented House Leader Tip O'Neill with a petition signed by six million people calling for the holiday to be created.
By 1983, it seemed that a tipping point had been reached as Representative Katie Hall introduced a bill to officially recognize the holiday. On August 2, the House voted 338-90 in its favor and passed it along to the Senate.
Although it was clear that there was increasing support for the bill across the political spectrum, Senators Jesse Helms and John Porter East fought the holiday based on King's “anti-American” opposition to the Vietnam War. Senator Helms even led a filibuster based on a document of King's purported communist sympathies that had fellow Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan throwing said document on the Senate floor, calling it "a packet of filth," and stomping on it. When Senator Ted Kennedy accused Helms of making false and inaccurate statements, Helms tried to have Kennedy punished over a rules violation for questioning his honor.
After all the commotion died down, the Senate rejected the attempt to kill the vote then approved the bill making King’s birthday a national holiday by a vote of 78-22. Despite his own personal reservations, President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law on November 2, 1983—paving the way for Martin Luther King Jr. Day to be celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time on January 20, 1986.
Just like Dr. King’s own work in his life, the establishment of a day honoring his legacy took determination, courage, and the mandate of the masses. As we take this federal holiday to reflect on the ways that King's vision for equality, democracy, and justice still resonate today, we invite you to engage with Facing History resources exploring MLK's powerful impact on our nation's story.
