Mecham gained national attention several days after his inauguration by fulfilling a campaign promise to cancel a paid Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday (MLK Day) for state employees.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day ... his Republican successor Evan Mecham, citing an attorney general's opinion that Babbitt's order was illegal, reversed Babbitt's decision days after taking office. [19] Later that year, Mecham proclaimed the third Sunday in January to be "Martin Luther King Jr./Civil Rights Day" in Arizona, albeit as an unpaid holiday.

Jan 20, 2025 · The path for Martin Luther King Jr. Day becoming a state holiday in Arizona was not simple and drew national criticism for its resistance to adopting it into law. ... The effort did not last long; in 1987, newly elected Gov. Evan Mecham rescinded the holiday, claiming the holiday was illegally created. The decision drew outcry both locally and ...

Jan 17, 2025 · The decision turned to the voters in 1990, when two separate ballot measures for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday were put on the state ballot, according to the Pima County Public Library. Both measures failed to pass, once again drawing outrage and …

Feb 21, 2008 · Letter from Rex C. Peterson to Governor Mecham, February 1987, re: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Arizona

Jan 15, 2025 · Then in 1987, Gov. Evan Mecham rescinded his predecessor’s executive order enacting a state holiday in Arizona. “He said ‘Black people don’t need a holiday. Y’all need jobs,'” recalled Dr....

Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Mecham gained national attention several days after his inauguration by fulfilling a campaign promise to cancel a paid Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday (MLK Day) for state employees.

Jan 15, 2025 · In 1983, about 20 years after King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, legislation for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the third Monday of January cleared Congress and President Ronald Reagan...

Jan 15, 2025 · Then in 1987, Gov. Evan Mecham rescinded his predecessor’s executive order enacting a state holiday in Arizona. “He said ‘Black people don’t need a holiday. Y’all need jobs,’” recalled Dr. Warren H. Stewart Sr., senior pastor at First Institutional Baptist Church in Phoenix. “That started the war.”

Jan 20, 2025 · Then in 1987, Gov. Evan Mecham rescinded his predecessor's executive order enacting a state holiday in Arizona. ... Martin Luther King Jr. Day's reach has only grown in its 42 years.