By Dennis Pillion
Alabama has three state holidays dedicated to the Confederacy: King-Lee Day, Confederate Memorial Day; and the birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in June.
The first holiday of the year honors Confederate General Robert E. Lee and, in 2022, is commemorated on Monday, Jan. 17. And, as it has done for decades, Alabama combines the Lee holiday with that honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Only Alabama and Mississippi combine a holiday honoring Lee and King. Other states, including Florida and Tennessee, set aside a day for Lee but do not combine it with the King holiday and state offices remain open.
Alabama and Mississippi have commemorated Lee’s birthday since the late1800s and King’s since 1983.
Previous efforts to end the joint holiday, including one that would give Lee his own day in October, have failed in the Alabama Legislature. Southern states began celebrating days honoring Lee and other Confederate leaders shortly after the Civil War. Lee was born on Jan. 19, 1807 in Virginia and died Oct. 12, 1870.
King was born on Jan. 15, 1929. Efforts to designate a holiday for King began shortly after his assassination on April 4, 1968. It took until 1983 for Congress to pass the measure with the first official MLK Day observed on the third Monday of January 1986 but only recognized in 27 states. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.