Trump and MLK, Jr.

Trump and MLK, Jr

Trump was inaugurated on Martin Luther King, Jr Day. The next time that a presidential inauguration is on MLK,Jr day will be 2053. Somehow it is appropriate that a republican president’s inauguration and MLK day coincide. While the democrats favored keeping slavery, Abraham Lincoln, the republican led the charge to abolish it. The southerners knew this and opted to secede from the Union. Lincoln first fought to reunite the Union and did not issue the Emancipation Proclamation until January 1, 1863. The Union victory at the Battle of Antietam allowed Lincoln to issue the proclamation which then led to the enlistment of over 100,000 black soldiers in the Union army.

While MLK, Jr Day is on the third Monday in January, King’s birthday is January 15 (which is also my son’s birthday). After King was assassinated in 1968, there was a campaign for a holiday on the federal level led by Rep. John Conyers. The first vote was in 1979 and failed by five votes in the House. Jimmy Carter was president and although the democrats had congressional majorities, he could not get the bill passed. Many southern democrats were opposed in the House and Jesse Helms and John East – both North Carolina republicans – led the opposition in the Senate. Although Helms was characterized as a racist, he had black staff members, supported my nomination to the National Credit Union Administration Board (I was on the Chapel Hill faculty at the time), and hosted my parents at my installation giving my father an American flag that was flown over the Capitol. He was courteous, courtly, called my parents as “sir” and “ma’am” and told them of how proud that I was a North Carolinian. The irony is that he always rallied about the “communists in Chapel Hill”.

There was pressure on Carter to get the bill passed. Stevie Wonder’s song “Happy Birthday” kept the campaign in the public’s eye. But Carter failed to get the southerners on board. Finally when Ronald Reagan became president he pressured the republicans to back the bill. They did and Reagan signed it into law in 1983. The holiday was first observed January 20, 1986. The holiday got a bumpy reception in the states. Arizona’s passage was particularly contentious with the NFL threatening to move its Super Bowl from Glendale in 1993 if the state had not adopted the holiday. New Hampshire did not pass the holiday until 2000.

I know that someone somewhere is probably decrying that Trump was inaugurated on MLKJr Day given the mantra that Trump is a homophobe xenophobe sexist and racist. But yet it is somewhat fitting given that his support in minority communities surpasses that of all republican presidents since Eisenhower in 1956.

How will Trump govern in this his second term? My friends on the right say that with Biden’s exit our national nightmare has ended. My friends on the left say that with the advent of Trump, our national nightmare is just beginning. I have a suspicion that they both may be right.

Happy Birthday

Stevie Wonder

You know it doesn’t make much sense 
There ought to be a law against 
Anyone who takes offense 
At a day in your celebration ’cause we all know in our minds

That there ought to be a time 
That we can set aside 
To show just how much we love you 
And I’m sure you would agree 
What could fit more perfectly 
Than to have a world party on the day you came to be

Happy birthday to you 

I just never understood 
How a man who died for good 
Could not have a day that would 
Be set aside for his recognition

Because it should never be 
Just because some cannot see 
The dream as clear as he 
That they should make it become an illusion

And we all know everything 
That he stood for time will bring 
For in peace, our hearts will sing 
Thanks to Martin Luther King

Happy birthday to you 

Why has there never been a holiday 
Where peace is celebrated 
All throughout the world

The time is overdue 
For people like me and you 
Who know the way to truth 
Is love and unity to all God’s children

It should be a great event 
And the whole day should be spent 
In full remembrance 
Of those who lived and died for the oneness of all people

So let us all begin 
We know that love can win 
Let it out, don’t hold it in 
Sing it loud as you can

Happy birthday

We know the key to unity of all people 
Is in the dream that you had so long ago 
That lives in all of the hearts of people 
That believe in unity 
We’ll make the dream become a reality 
I know we will 
Because our hearts tell us so

Happy birthday