Dr Martin Luther King, Jr in Arizona
Resources related to the study of Dr. King and his relation to the state of Arizona. Topics include his visits to Phoenix and Tucson in the 1960s, the Martin Luther King Jr holiday controversy, and discovery of the audio recordings of his speech in 2014.
The MLK, Jr Holiday Controversy in Arizona
Resources on the Arizona Memory Project site documenting the Martin Luther King Jr Holiday in Arizona
Governor Bruce Babbitt declared Martin Luther King Jr. Day an Arizona holiday on March 18, 1986, but his proclamation was repealed by Governor Mecham in 1987 on the grounds Babbitt did not have the authority to declare such a holiday. Arizonans were for and against repeal of the holiday for a variety of reasons, and in 1992, Arizona voters reinstated the holiday.
Victory Together book
Victory Together for Martin Luther King, Jr by ISBN: 9780996212601Publication date: 2015-04-10I was handed the responsibility for seeing that Arizona would never return to the days when its citizens did not officially honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with his day. At 12:01 a.m., Monday, January 18, 1993, Arizona joined forty-eight other states in the nation in honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the third Monday in January. VICTORY TOGETHER's prophecy had come to pass with the official paid state holiday labeled Martin Luther King, Jr./Civil Rights Day. I gathered with thousands of others at Eastlake Park for the beginning of the MLK Day "Victory March" at around 9:00 a.m. No more would our trek to the State Capitol be a protest march demanding, "We want a holiday!"
