Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi Continue to Honor Robert E. Lee on Martin Luther King Day

While the nation honors the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on 
Monday, three states celebrate another man as well.

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 two figures seem to coexist in the very fabric of the 
Arkansas' capital city, where streets bear each of their names.

The large number of events celebrating King's life always 
outweigh the nearly silent response to the Confederate general, 
said state Sen. Tracy Steele. He said some hope to separate the 
overlapping honors for Lee and King.

"It certainly has been discussed. In past years, there's not 
been the type of community outcry or internal legislative 
support to get it done," said Steele, D-North Little Rock. "But 
it does seem the question comes up every year."

The pull of Civil War history, particularly the Confederacy, 
remains strong in Arkansas. Hats, T-shirts and pickup truck back 
windows still bear the "bars and stars" of the Confederate 
battle flag.

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.

In 1983, lawmakers voted to recognize King Day as an official 
state holiday, but required state employees to choose which two 
holidays they wanted off — either King's birthday on Jan. 15, 
Lee's birthday on Jan. 19 or the employee's birthday.

During the next regular legislative session in 1985, they voted 
to combine King and Lee's holiday commemorations for the third 
Monday in January. Employees got to keep their birthdays as a 
holiday.

When Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe was asked if he would attend a 
Lee event, Beebe said he "wasn't aware of any." He deferred when 
asked if the state should cede the day to King alone.

"The Legislature has to make the decision," Beebe told The 
Associated Press. "As a practical matter, virtually all the 
celebrations have been centered around MLK."

In 1997, a spokesman for then-Gov. Mike Huckabee said that both 
men should be honored. Huckabee, currently running for the 
Republican presidential nomination, in 1999 signed the bill that 
gave the Legislature a holiday on King Day.

"They're both heroes. Their birthdays come the same week and you 
know the government likes to have holidays at the start of the 
week," spokesman Rex Nelson said then.

But the president of the Arkansas chapter of the National 
Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in 1997 
that it seemed inappropriate to honor King on the same day.

"Dr. King worked hard to unify the country," Dale Charles said. 
"I wouldn't say General Lee would be in the same notion of 
Martin Luther King. He was a great general and all, but he 
didn't come close to what Martin Luther King was about."

Arkansas also has another combination commemoration. On 
President's Day — the third Monday in February — the state 
recognizes Daisy Gaston Bates, who mentored the nine black 
students who integrated Little Rock Central High School under 
Army guard in 1957.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/01/21/arkansas-alabama-
mississippi-continue-to-honor-robert-e-lee-on-martin-luther/
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