Vintage Chicago Tribune: How Illinois became the first state to recognize MLK Day

We remember Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. each January 15, which was the slain civil rights leader’s birthday.

But, did you know, Illinois was the first state to recognize it as a holiday 50 years ago?

Schools here began commemorating the occasion in 1969. They wouldn’t, however, close for the day until Gov. Dan Walker made it a legal holiday on Sept. 17, 1973. The bill’s sponsor: Illinois Rep. Harold Washington.

It would take another decade before the federal government designated the third Monday in January as a national holiday in honor of King. By then, Washington had become Chicago’s first Black mayor.

This week we take a look back at King’s time in Chicago and the effort to organize an annual celebration of his life.

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Jan. 7, 1966: ‘I want to announce the first significant northern freedom movement ever attempted by major civil rights forces’

King tells reporters he is working on a three-phase plan to mobilize the roughly 1 million Blacks in Chicago. While spending a few days each week in the city, King planned to target public and private institutions “which have created infamous slum conditions directly responsible for the involuntary enslavement of millions of Black men, women and children.”

Though he previously threatened to spend another summer in Chicago leading protests in favor of open housing, he abandons that effort in July 1967.

• Martin Luther King Jr.: Q & A with ‘King: A Life’ author Jonathan Eig on the civil rights leader’s year in Chicago

• Rare photos of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s time in Chicago

April 4, 1968: King slain, Chicago riots

A little more than a year since he voiced his dissatisfaction with Chicago leaders, King is shot and killed at a Memphis hotel.

Just one day later, Chicago explodes. Seething with anger, thousands take to the streets in a two-day siege, smashing storefront windows, plundering merchandise and setting buildings ablaze.

• Photo gallery: Chicago riots after the death of Martin Luther King Jr.

• RAGE, RIOTS, RUIN: 50 years ago, Chicago’s West Side burned. Today, some neighborhoods still bear scars from that destruction.

Sept. 17, 1973: MLK Day becomes a legal holiday in Illinois

A movement began immediately after King’s death to create a national holiday in his honor.

The first successful sponsor of such a bill was an elected official in Illinois — Rep. Harold Washington of Chicago. The future mayor of the city was the architect of a measure that created a commemorative holiday on King’s birthday (January 15) and was signed into law by Gov. Richard Ogilvie on Oct. 6, 1969. Schools, however, wouldn’t be closed for the occasion and businesses had no obligation to shut their doors either. Ogilvie vetoed a 1971 bill that would have made King’s birthday a legal holiday — which would close schools, businesses and government offices — saying it could have “a severe impact” on commerce since it wasn’t observed elsewhere.

Ogilvie’s successor, Gov. Dan Walker, signed a bill creating the legal holiday while also approving a measure to prohibit the state from ordering busing to achieve racial balance in public schools. Ironically, King was an advocate of busing. Walker later issued a proclamation permitting banks and other institutions to remain open on January 15.

• Story from Jan. 4, 1969: Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Southern Christian Leadership Conference successor, says King’s birthday — January 15 — should be celebrated as a national holiday

• Story from Jan. 16, 1969: Hundreds of Chicagoans mark King’s birthday at a memorial service in Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church

• Story from Jan. 16, 1969: 375 students from Evanston Township High School walk out of school to march downtown in honor of King’s birthday

Jan. 15, 1974: First MLK Day observed in Illinois

A cheering crowd of 1,000 people joined a celebration at Operation PUSH headquarters while others attended a candlelit memorial service at St. Martin Catholic Church.

Chicago public schools and city colleges were closed. All city, state and county offices in Chicago were closed as were criminal and civil courts and three state motor vehicle facilities.

• Photo gallery: Illinois’ first celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1974

Nov. 2, 1983: MLK Day becomes a national holiday

With Coretta Scott King at his side, President Ronald Reagan signs legislation designating the third Monday in January as the nation’s 10th national holiday. The first observance happened on Jan. 20, 1986. Two states, Mississippi and Alabama, honor King and Confederate general Robert E. Lee on King-Lee Day.

Reagan, who initially opposed the King holiday, said the civil rights leader “made equality of rights his life’s work” and was a man “whose words and deeds ... stirred our nation to the very depths of its soul.”

• Story from Oct. 20, 1983: Senate votes 78-22 to create U.S. holiday honoring King

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