{"id":16562,"date":"2015-08-20T15:47:36","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T19:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/?p=16562"},"modified":"2023-01-08T23:39:22","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T04:39:22","slug":"martin-luther-king-jr-day","status":"publish","type":"egp_essays","link":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/essays\/martin-luther-king-jr-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Luther King Jr. Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia has had a greater influence on Martin Luther King Jr. holiday traditions than any city other than King\u2019s birthplace, Atlanta. Observed on the third Monday in January since 1986, the federal holiday commemorates King (1929-68) and his civil rights activism. Ceremonies at the Liberty Bell and a focus on community service are among Philadelphia\u2019s contributions to the annual observance.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Martin Luther King and local NAACP leader Cecil B. Moore worked together in August 1965 on the desegregation protests at Girard College. Moore was initially skeptical of King’s nonviolent approach to civil rights and discouraged him from joining the Girard protests. (Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Interest in honoring King\u2019s legacy grew after his 1968 assassination<\/a>, and annual observances of his date of birth (January 15) began in Atlanta and elsewhere. Pennsylvania Governor Milton J. Shapp<\/a> (1912-94) signed a state King Holiday into law in 1978, and New Jersey declared a state holiday the same year. Delaware Governor Pierre Samuel Du Pont<\/a> (b.1935) designated a state holiday in 1984. Public pressure also persuaded Congress to pass federal King holiday legislation<\/a>, which President Ronald Reagan<\/a> (1911-2004) signed on November 2, 1983. Commemorating King\u2019s birthday as a federal holiday beginning in 1986, the day was dedicated to reflecting on \u201cracial equality and nonviolent social change.\u201d Intended for all Americans, not only African Americans, King Day nonetheless fulfilled a long held desire for a national Black holiday.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s role in the observance grew after the first holiday, which was criticized by civil rights activists as superficial and overly reliant on King\u2019s \u201cI Have a Dream<\/a>\u201d speech. Seeking to make the day more substantial, the King Federal Holiday Commission chaired by King’s widow\u00a0Coretta Scott King<\/a> (1927-2006) looked to Philadelphia for inspiration and used the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution<\/a> to invoke King\u2019s legacy. The Liberty Bell, with its associations to independence and abolition<\/a>, became a holiday icon; ringing the bell, and replicas in every state, became a tradition from 1987. Some who gently tapped the bell in Philadelphia included Rosa Parks<\/a> (1988), Benjamin Hooks<\/a> of the NAACP<\/a> (1989), James Farmer<\/a> of the Congress of Racial Equality (1990), Dorothy Height<\/a> of the National Council of Negro Women<\/a> (1992), Vice President Albert Gore<\/a> (1995), and General Colin Powell<\/a> (1996). King himself had laid a wreath at the bell in 1959 on National Freedom Day<\/a> to commemorate the Thirteenth Amendment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Day of Tribute\u2014and Protest<\/h3>\n

On King Day, traditions in the Philadelphia region have included ecumenical prayer services, songs, speeches, and acts of community service. Banks, public schools, and state and federal agencies close. The holiday has also been used to protest social and political conditions. Over the years, Congressman William H. Gray III <\/a>(1941-2013) denounced apartheid in South Africa<\/a>, the Philadelphia-Delaware Valley Union of the Homeless claimed an abandoned house in Southwest Philadelphia<\/a>, and sanitation workers demonstrated against their employment conditions. C. Delores Tucker<\/a> (1927-2005), president of the Philadelphia MLK Association for Nonviolence, also led a protest outside Tower Records to condemn misogynist lyrics in rap music.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The Liberty Bell is ceremonially tapped each year on the King Holiday by a chosen member of the civil rights community. This ritual was first requested by King’s widow Coretta Scott King in 1986. (Independence National Historical Park via the National Park Service)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Philadelphia again influenced the national holiday in 1994 when U.S. Senator Harris Wofford<\/a> (b. 1926) of Pennsylvania persuaded Congress to convert\u00a0the holiday to a day of community service. Wofford had worked as a civil rights adviser to President John F. Kennedy<\/a> and led the Peace Corps<\/a>, an inspiration for the service initiative. Wofford highlighted Philadelphia\u2019s existing community service events and with Coretta Scott King\u2019s support he and Congressman John Lewis<\/a> (b. 1940), a civil rights movement veteran, sought to transform the day into an \u201cactive living tribute\u201d to King. They wanted \u201cto remember Martin the way he would have liked\u201d with \u201caction, not apathy.\u201d On August 23, 1994, President Bill Clinton<\/a> (b. 1946) signed the King Holiday and Service Act<\/a>, establishing the day of service.<\/p>\n

In Greater Philadelphia<\/a>, service activities on Martin Luther King Day have been centered at Girard College<\/a>, where King spoke before 5,000 at an integration rally in 1965. Activities have been coordinated by MLK 365<\/a>, a project of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization Global Citizen<\/a>. MLK 365 seeks to promote volunteerism not only on the holiday, but year-round, and hosts discussions on race, class and power.<\/p>\n

\"Martin<\/a>
Besides being a day of service projects, Martin Luther King Jr. Day also has become a day of rights demonstrations. These demonstrators were approaching City Hall during a march in 2015. (Photograph by Donald D. Groff for the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 2015 King holiday in Philadelphia encompassed protest as well as commemoration. A large rally marching up Broad Street to City Hall<\/a>\u00a0and on to Independence Hall marked Martin Luther King Day as a \u201cDay of Action, Resistance, and Empowerment\u201d against economic inequality and police brutality. Following several high profile deaths of Black men in other cities at the hands of police, this protest attempted to reclaim King\u2019s activism and pointed to a potentially contentious future for the holiday as a new generation of King legatees sought to protest as well as to serve.<\/p>\n

Daniel Thomas Fleming<\/strong>\u00a0is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He is the author of \u201cRemembering Martin Luther King Jr.\u201d in <\/em>Agora, Vol 46, No 1, 2011 and \u201cMarvin Gaye, Martin Luther King and the FBI\u201d in <\/em>Traffic, Vol 9, 2007. He has presented his research at conferences of the Organization of American Historians and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. (Author information current at time of publication.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia has had a greater influence on\u00a0Martin Luther King Jr. holiday traditions than any city other than King\u2019s birthplace, Atlanta. Observed on the third Monday in January since 1986, the federal holiday commemorates King (1929-68) and his civil rights activism. Ceremonies at the\u00a0Liberty Bell\u00a0and a focus on community service are among Philadelphia\u2019s contributions to the annual observance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":16902,"template":"","egp_featured_subjects":[1991,1992,2001,2008,2029],"class_list":["post-16562","egp_essays","type-egp_essays","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","egp_featured_subjects-activism","egp_featured_subjects-african-americans","egp_featured_subjects-commemorations-and-holidays","egp_featured_subjects-events","egp_featured_subjects-popular-culture"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/egp_essays\/16562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/egp_essays"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/egp_essays"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/egp_essays\/16562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38721,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/egp_essays\/16562\/revisions\/38721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"egp_featured_subjects","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/egp_featured_subjects?post=16562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}