page_title: Passage of Martin Luther King Jr. Day
section_title: Prior attempts
hierarchical_section_title: Passage of Martin Luther King Jr. Day / History / National / Prior attempts
caption_attribution_description: English: 1983 United States Senate vote on making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday
context_page_description: A United States federal statute honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and his work in the civil rights movement with a federal holiday was enacted by the 98th United States Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on November 2, 1983, creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The final vote in the House of Representatives on August 2, 1983 was 338–90 with 5 members voting present or abstaining, while the final vote in the Senate on October 19, 1983 was 78–22, both veto-proof margins.
  Prior to 1983 there had been multiple attempts following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. to have a holiday created in his honor with Representative John Conyers introducing legislation in every legislative session from 1968 to 1983. In 1979 a vote was held on legislation that would have created a holiday on the third Monday in January, but it failed to receive two-thirds support and was later rescinded following an amendment changing its date.
  While attempts were made to have a federally recognized holiday, numerous U.S. states recognized holidays in honor of King. Connecticut did so in 1973.
context_section_description: During the 90th Session of Congress following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, Senator Edward Brooke and Representatives John Conyers and Charles Samuel Joelson introduced multiple bills that would create a holiday to honor King on either January 15 or April 4, but none of their bills went to a vote.
  In 1971, Ralph Abernathy, the second president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a close friend of King, submitted multiple petitions to Senator Adlai Stevenson III asking for a national holiday honoring King on his birthday to be created. On February 10, 1971, Senators George McGovern and Jacob Javits introduced a bill in the Senate to recognize King's birthday as a national holiday and issued a joint statement in support of it, but the bill failed to advance. In September 1972, Representative Conyers introduced another bill in the House along with 23 co-sponsors; this was approved by the House Judiciary committee but was not voted on by the full House.
  On September 28, 1979, Representative Conyers introduced another bill to create a federal holiday in honor of King, and on October 19, Representative John Joseph Cavanaugh III stated that the U.S. House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service was planning to report the bill to the House floor. On October 23, the bill was reported to the House floor, but Conyers later had the bill delayed on October 30 as he felt that the bill would not reach the two-thirds vote needed for passage, without the addition of amendments that could weaken the bill. Representative Robert Garcia served as the floor manager of the bill and on November 13, the House voted 253 to 133 in favor of the bill, falling short of the two-thirds vote needed for passage. The House voted to amend the bill to move the date of the holiday from Monday to Sunday by a vote of 207 to 191 on December 6, but the bill was rescinded by its sponsors and the Congressional Black Caucus later criticized President Jimmy Carter for not being supportive enough of the bill.
caption: United States Senate vote on the bill
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