MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The U.S. is set to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the federal holiday set aside to honor the life of the civil rights icon. But in Alabama and Mississippi, Monday is also Robert E. Lee Day in honor of the Confederate general.
The two states recognize King and Lee on the third Monday in January. Their state governments created holidays more than a century ago to honor Lee and later combined the day with the federal holiday established in the 1980s to honor King.
The strange juxtaposition of honoring men from vastly different legacies has persisted for decades.
Both men have January birthdays. Lee was born Jan. 19, 1807. King was born Jan. 15, 1929.
In the years after the Civil War, white politicians in southern states created multiple holidays to honor Confederate leaders and dead Confederate soldiers. Alabama lawmakers in 1901 named a January state holiday for Lee. Mississippi did the same in 1910.
President Ronald Reagan in 1983 signed legislation naming the third Monday of January as Martin Luther King Jr. Day to honor the slain civil rights leader. States slowly added the day to their roster of state holidays. Alabama and Mississippi in the 1980s adopted Martin Luther King Day as a state holiday, adding it to their existing day honoring Lee.
Some other southern states at one time also had a joint holiday, but have ended that practice, leaving only Alabama and Mississippi with a single day honoring both King and Lee.
Black lawmakers in Alabama and Mississippi have made multiple attempts in recent years to separate the holidays. But they have so far been unsuccessful.
Rep. Kenyatté Hassell said he wants to try again in Alabama in the legislative session begining next month. It is disrespectful to King’s memory and the struggle of the civil rights movement to celebrate him alongside a Confederate general, Hassell, said Hassell, a Democrat from Montgomery.
“There are fundamental difference between General Lee and Dr. King. The Confederate general, he fought the preserve slavery and uphold the whole institution of white supremacy. Dr. King was a civil rights leader who fought for equality and justice for all people,” Hassell said.
The holiday celebrating Lee and King together comes in states where Black residents account for more than a quarter of the population. Black citizens make up 36% of the population in Mississippi and 27% in Alabama.
King first rose to prominence in the 1950s as the leader of the boycott against the segregated bus system in Montgomery, Alabama.
Hassell in 2023 introduced legislation, co-sponsored with more than a dozen other lawmakers, that would remove the reference to Lee on the January holiday. Another 2024 bill would have moved the Lee holiday to Columbus Day in October, which coincides with the month of his death. Neither bill made it to a floor vote.
In Mississippi, Rep. Kabir Karriem, a Democrat from Columbus, introduced legislation this session that would remove the recognition of Lee from the holiday. The bill states the purpose is to “reflect the transformative power of Mississippi from its past to its present by celebrating holidays that wholly reflect the remarkable strides made by all citizens.”
Many states in the South have opted to abolish or rename Confederate-related holidays.
Louisiana in 2022 struck Robert E. Lee Day and Confederate Memorial Day from the list of official state holidays.
Virginia in 2020 scrapped a holiday honoring Lee and Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, both natives of the state, to make Election Day a state holiday.
Georgia in 2015 changed Confederate Memorial Day to the neutrally titled “State Holiday.” Arkansas in 2017 ended the state’s practice of commemorating Lee on the same day as King, leaving only Alabama and Mississippi remaining.
Alabama and Mississippi have three Confederate-related state holidays. Both states mark Confederate Memorial Day in April and mark the birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. South Carolina marks Confederate Memorial Day in May.
Other states have Confederate-related holidays on the books, but they are not full holidays when state offices close.