THE GREENSBORO TIMES Publisher’s View The History of Establishing the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday in Greensboro
This month the City of Greensboro and the entire Nation will celebrate the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his national and global contributions to civil rights and human rights.
The
effort to establish the Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) national holiday was a long and hard fought struggle for many across the country and is now a federal holiday.
Each state and city Earl Jones, Publisher this was Martin Luther King, Jr.
had its own effort to establish the holiday and Greensboro was no different. If anyone deserved a holiday that would be celebrated by all Americans of all walks of life, From1954
to April 4, 1968 when he was assassinated, he daily sacrificed his life in the non-violent quest for the civil and human rights of African Americans that became the catalyst for women’s rights, the physically challenged, senior citizens (age discrimination laws), Hispanics (laws against national origin discrimination), religious groups (anti-discrimination laws against religious groups) among other historically oppressed groups in America.
The effort to establish a MLK holiday in Greensboro began on
January 9, 1986 when I, as a Greensboro City Councilmember, sponsored the King Holiday legislation. The proposal introduced was to establish the third Monday in January as a new municipal paid holiday honoring Dr. King. After a lengthy and sometimes heated discussion, the Council rejected the legislation, with a vote of four supporting the legislation and five against. Supporting the proposal were Katie Dorsett and myself and the late former council members Dorothy Bardolph and Lonnie Revels. The Council rejection of the legislation triggered a reaction of meetings, marches, protests, resolutions, community unity and activism regarding the City Council action. Within a two week period, the African-American community was organized and dedicated to reversing the council’s decision. The local chapter of the NAACP issued a resolution condemning the council’s action and demanded a reversal of the decision. There were letters to the editor of the local majority newspaper criticizing the decision,
and there were those who supported the Council’s decision. There were countless phone calls to City Councilmembers urging support of a MLK holiday. There was a mass demonstration, candle light vigil and marches by North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCA&T) Students in downtown Greensboro led by the son of Rev. Jesse Jackson— Jesse Jackson, Jr. who was a student at NCA&T at that time. The students marched to city hall to present their appeal for a city holiday honoring the slain Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The next day, on January 16, 1986, there was a scheduled council meeting late that afternoon, two weeks after council’s rejection of the King Holiday. I had informed my council colleagues that I would present the proposal again at the scheduled council meeting. The atmosphere at the City Council meeting was tense. Close to 300 people or more showed up. Many had signed up to address the council on the issue. But they didn’t have a chance to speak on the issue to the council. Immediately after opening the meeting, Mayor John Forbis said the council wanted to re-vote on the the MLK Holiday legislation. Then, the Greensboro City Council voted to make Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday a paid municipal holiday. The Council approved the municipal ordinance legislation with a unanimous vote. After the vote, Mayor Forbis and the City Council received a standing ovation from the 300 + citizens who attended the meeting. Two or three days before the Council vote, there was intense discussions and debate among us council members whether to re- visit and take another vote on the proposed MLK Holiday city ordinance. Ultimately, that dialogue among council members and public pressure from African Americans citizens in Greensboro and their allies paid off. Greensboro was the first city in North Carolina to establish Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a paid municipal holiday.
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Discrimination Suit > from page 1
that the Greensboro City Council decision denying the loan was based on racial prejudice. The Woods claim that the conditions that the City was willing to grant Black Network Television a loan were more stringent than those the City applied to white own business applicants. Senior Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Andre Davis wrote that Black Network Television provided enough evidence to make its discrimination case.
The lawsuit outlines the claim for damages caused by denial of
the promised funds. The loan was slated for network operations including production of a new national sitcom comedy show titled, ”Whatcha Cooking.” The show included famed actress Kim Fields. In April 2013, the Greensboro City Council voted to approve the $300 thousand dollar loan but the City Council reversed the approval of the loan two months later, on June 18, 2013. The attorney representing the Black Network Television, Willie Gary, accused Council Members of scheming to prevent the station from growing because of “jealousy, hate and discrimination.””The City of Greensboro’s discriminatory acts crushed our clients dream,” said Gary,”Michael and Ramona Woods discussed with various city officials what a successful minority owned Greensboro based television network would mean to the community in terms of job creation, skills and training and economic development. As a result, the Woods put full trust and confidence in the City’s promise to grant the economic development loan, only to be misled, misguided and deceived and discriminated against,” Gary stated. City Council members who voted against granting the loan at the time were, Mayor Nancy Vaughn (a city council member at the time) Marikay Abuzuaiter, Nancy Hoffman, and former Council members Tony Wilkins, Zack Matheny and Diane Bellamy-Small. The Mayor at the time was Robbie Perkins who supported granting the loan and said that he believed the Woods, who had invested $800 thousand of their own money, would have repaid the loan. Greensboro officials could have accepted the decision of the US Court of Appeals but choose to appeal to the US Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court’s decision to reject the City of Greensboro’s Appeal means the Appeals Court decision that the City of Greensboro discriminated against Black Network TV stands as a final decision.
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