XPost: alt.politics.conservative, alt.politics.democrats, dc.politics   
   XPost: soc.culture.african.american   
   From: rkoch@banmlkday.com   
      
   While the nation honors the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on   
   Monday, three states celebrate another man as well.   
      
   In Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi, the slain civil rights   
   leader shares a state holiday with Robert E. Lee, commanding   
   officer of the Confederate Army.   
      
   The two figures seem to coexist in the very fabric of the   
   Arkansas' capital city, where streets bear each of their names.   
      
   The large number of events celebrating King's life always   
   outweigh the nearly silent response to the Confederate general,   
   said state Sen. Tracy Steele. He said some hope to separate the   
   overlapping honors for Lee and King.   
      
   "It certainly has been discussed. In past years, there's not   
   been the type of community outcry or internal legislative   
   support to get it done," said Steele, D-North Little Rock. "But   
   it does seem the question comes up every year."   
      
   The pull of Civil War history, particularly the Confederacy,   
   remains strong in Arkansas. Hats, T-shirts and pickup truck back   
   windows still bear the "bars and stars" of the Confederate   
   battle flag.   
      
   The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the state's largest newspaper,   
   typically runs a long editorial noting the general's birthday   
   each year. King receives a similar tribute.   
      
   In its Lee tribute last year, the newspaper's editorial page   
   read: "Despite his legend, the general could not command events   
   — yet he remained in full command of his response to those   
   events. Which is why not all the rains that have come and gone   
   since his time have been able to wash out the single name that   
   still sums up whatever is best in us and in this, our ever   
   fecund, always forgiving South: Lee."   
      
   Lee, born 201 years ago, received the honor of having a county   
   in eastern Arkansas named after him during Reconstruction.   
   Another county in Arkansas is named for Lee's adversary,   
   president and former Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.   
      
   The commemoration of Lee's birth dates to 1943, when Arkansas   
   legislators declared it one of several "memorial days" the   
   governor would commemorate by a proclamation. In 1947,   
   legislators amended the law to name Jan. 19 a legal holiday in   
   honor of the general.   
      
   In 1983, lawmakers voted to recognize King Day as an official   
   state holiday, but required state employees to choose which two   
   holidays they wanted off — either King's birthday on Jan. 15,   
   Lee's birthday on Jan. 19 or the employee's birthday.   
      
   During the next regular legislative session in 1985, they voted   
   to combine King and Lee's holiday commemorations for the third   
   Monday in January. Employees got to keep their birthdays as a   
   holiday.   
      
   When Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe was asked if he would attend a   
   Lee event, Beebe said he "wasn't aware of any." He deferred when   
   asked if the state should cede the day to King alone.   
      
   "The Legislature has to make the decision," Beebe told The   
   Associated Press. "As a practical matter, virtually all the   
   celebrations have been centered around MLK."   
      
   In 1997, a spokesman for then-Gov. Mike Huckabee said that both   
   men should be honored. Huckabee, currently running for the   
   Republican presidential nomination, in 1999 signed the bill that   
   gave the Legislature a holiday on King Day.   
      
   "They're both heroes. Their birthdays come the same week and you   
   know the government likes to have holidays at the start of the   
   week," spokesman Rex Nelson said then.   
      
   But the president of the Arkansas chapter of the National   
   Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in 1997   
   that it seemed inappropriate to honor King on the same day.   
      
   "Dr. King worked hard to unify the country," Dale Charles said.   
   "I wouldn't say General Lee would be in the same notion of   
   Martin Luther King. He was a great general and all, but he   
   didn't come close to what Martin Luther King was about."   
      
   Arkansas also has another combination commemoration. On   
   President's Day — the third Monday in February — the state   
   recognizes Daisy Gaston Bates, who mentored the nine black   
   students who integrated Little Rock Central High School under   
   Army guard in 1957.   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/01/21/arkansas-alabama-   
   mississippi-continue-to-honor-robert-e-lee-on-martin-luther/   
                
      
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)