Meanwhile, Back in the 19th Century…
Posted on | January 21, 2008
In three southern states, the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a joint holiday:
In Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi, the slain civil rights leader shares a state holiday with Robert E. Lee, commanding officer of the Confederate Army…
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the state’s largest newspaper, typically runs a long editorial noting the general’s birthday each year. King receives a similar tribute.
In its Lee tribute last year, the newspaper’s editorial page read: “Despite his legend, the general could not command events — yet he remained in full command of his response to those events. Which is why not all the rains that have come and gone since his time have been able to wash out the single name that still sums up whatever is best in us and in this, our ever fecund, always forgiving South: Lee.”
Lee, born 201 years ago, received the honor of having a county in eastern Arkansas named after him during Reconstruction. Another county in Arkansas is named for Lee’s adversary, president and former Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
The commemoration of Lee’s birth dates to 1943, when Arkansas legislators declared it one of several “memorial days” the governor would commemorate by a proclamation. In 1947, legislators amended the law to name Jan. 19 a legal holiday in honor of the general.
General Lee was an interesting figure, but “celebrating” him alongside Dr. King is a slap in the face to you-know-whom.
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