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Lead
This year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day marks the 25th anniversary of the celebration of his birthday as a federal holiday. Still, it was only in the year 2000—14 years after MLK Jr.’s birthday was made a national holiday by federal law—that all 50 states recognized the holiday by name and celebrated it as a paid holiday.
The following is a list of the last states to adhere to the law, most begrudgingly and not without a fight, exercising their right as states to be wildly unlikable assholes— we’re looking at you, Arizona.
Arizona
Arizona
Year: 1993
The Arizona state legislature voted to not adhere to the 1986 federal law establishing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a national paid holiday (John McCain famously voted against the holiday). Then Governor Bruce Babbitt issued an executive order mandating it as a paid holiday. This caused controversy because it wasn't approved by the legislature. Somehow managing to get elected, Evan Mecham fulfilled a campaign promise to cancel the holiday (he was eventually impeached on charges of misuse of government funds and obstruction of justice). In 1990, 76% of Arizona voters rejected the holiday, causing the NFL to move the Super Bowl in 1993 from Tempe to Pasadena, California. Finally, in 1993, MLK Day was officially observed as a paid holiday. So, it took 9 years, 500 million dollars in lost revenue, a corrupt governor, and a national controversy for a severely belated vote on the holiday to limp into the books.
New Hampshire
New Hampshire
Year: 1999
New Hampshire was the last state to have a paid state holiday named after Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1991, Fast Day was abolished and replaced with Civil Rights Day, but it was not until 1999 that Civil Rights Day” became Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Still, the measure passed with a vote of 212 to 148. One hundred and forty eight human beings voted against the bill. The criticisms of the bill ranged from blind conformism to disdain for singling out one person to stand-in for the whole of the Civil Rights Movement to celebrating a man and not ideals. These range on a scale of bullshit. They miss the essential point of a holiday that honors a man that inspired and represented a movement.
Virginia
Virginia
Year: 2000
In many Southern states there were and are holidays on the books celebrating Confederate Generals. In Virginia, one of these holidays was Lee-Jackson Day, celebrating both Generals Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson. To align with the Federal holiday, Virginia combined Martin Luther King, Jr. Day into Lee-Jackson-King Day. To be fair, Virginia had celebrated MLK Day since 1978 on New Year's Day, and changed it to be in line with the new federal holiday. We also certainly can't associate broadly the two generals as pro-slavery racists, considering there exists some evidence of Lee's opposition to slavery. However, it is laughable at best and offensive at worst that it took almost 20 years for someone to realize that honoring Dr. King and generals of the Confederacy on the same day was irreconcilable.
Utah
Utah
Year: 2000
In 2000, Utah's Human Right's Day, celebrated on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, finally recognized the holiday by name. But the controversy didn't end there. In 2007, the Utah congress (then with no black legislators) was still opening the annual session on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In 2010, Republican senator Mark Madsen introduced legislation to honor Utah-born gun maker John Browning on MLK Day, seeing them as “complimentary”. Aside from the obvious and grotesquely insensitive fact that Dr. King was assassinated, it's sad that contention like this surrounds the holiday still.
South Carolina
South Carolina
Year: 2000
2000 saw the full recognition of MLK Day by Utah and Virginia, though the holiday still existed in some form for those states. South Carolina has the dubious honor of being the last state in the nation to recognize Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a paid state holiday. Up until then, a choice had been offered between MLK Day and three other Confederate holidays. This decision coincided with the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina's State House dome at the capitol.