Alabama and Mississippi will also honor Robert E. Lee on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 5:08 AM EST, January 19, 2025


MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. is set to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the federal holiday set aside to honor the life of the civil rights icon. But in Alabama and Mississippi, Monday is also Robert E. Lee Day in honor of the Confederate general.

The two states recognize King and Lee on the third Monday in January. Their state governments created holidays more than a century ago to honor Lee and later combined the day with the federal holiday established in the 1980s to honor King. The strange juxtaposition of honoring men from vastly different legacies has persisted for decades.

How it happened

Both men have January birthdays. Lee was born Jan. 19, 1807. King was born Jan. 15, 1929. In the years after the Civil War, white politicians in southern states created multiple holidays to honor Confederate leaders and dead Confederate soldiers. Alabama lawmakers in 1901 named a January state holiday for Lee. Mississippi did the same in 1910.

President Ronald Reagan in 1983 signed legislation naming the third Monday of January as Martin Luther King Jr. Day to honor the slain civil rights leader. States slowly added the day to their roster of state holidays. Alabama and Mississippi in the 1980s adopted Martin Luther King Day as a state holiday, adding it to their existing day honoring Lee. Some other southern states at one time also had a joint holiday, but have ended that practice, leaving only Alabama and Mississippi with a single day honoring both King and Lee.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/martin-luther-king-jr-holiday-alabama-mississippi-0f535594cf50af7103ca2d953e1bc9a1

[BOSSHOG]

1. Yes. HONOR Robert E Lee

Vote for Donald Trump. Call self a Patriot.

[liberalgunwilltravel]

2. When the next Civil War comes

Don't stop General Sherman.

[Crowman2009]

31. You won't need to fire a shot in the next civil war.

Just cut off their diabetes mediation, electric cart batteries and cancel football.

[evemac]

3. So dishonorable nt

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Why not honor Benedict Arnold

on July 4 every year?

[Journeyman]

5. Keep in mind, slavery was ultimately vanquished from our land because of Robert E. Lee . . .

It is one of those supremely ironic situations that doesn’t get near enough recognition.

Up until the time Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia (June 1862) it was Mr Lincoln’s stated objective that if the South ceased its rebellion, and submitted again to Union control, then slavery would remain as it had been prior to the rebellion. The original 13th Amendment, the Corwin Amendment (after Thomas Corwin, the Ohio Congressman who proposed it in 1860), held that slavery was to be unmolested in perpetuity. Mr Lincoln himself endorsed this idea in his First Inaugural. (1)

It was Robert E. Lee’s success against far superior Union forces in the Seven Days Battles that sealed the South’s fate and slavery’s demise. In driving the Army of the Potomac back, Lee turned Confederate morale around, and its soldiers took to battle with renewed purpose. That summer, however, convinced Mr Lincoln that every tactic needed to be deployed against the rebellion, including denial of its labor force, the eventual use of black soldiers, and the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. The die was cast -- by Robert E. Lee -- and the result was eventual total war and the destruction of the Southern social and political order.

So if they wish to honor this scoundrel, Bobby Lee, for this good he ultimately brought to pass, I've no problem with that. Otherwise, he was a traitorous miscreant, not worthy of recognition outside the history books.


(1) "I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution (2)—which amendment, however, I have not seen—has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.” ~ President Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural, March 4, 1861

(2) The Corwin Amendment: No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.

[intelpug]

21. Lee helped end slavery

I put this out simply for discussion and possibly some input since I really don't know the answer but I have read in the past that possibly one of the first acts of a victorious confederate government would have been to start abolishing slavery it's self since Great Britain and most of Europe at the time including the United States would have boycotted any southern trade until the institution it's self was abolished leaving them no markets anywhere until they fell in line with the rest of the world. I don't know if there is anything to this line of reasoning or not but I have heard it put out before

[C0RI0LANUS]

27. The UK was against slavery in the US because of economic reasons.

The Royal Navy enforced actions in the Atlantic Ocean against slave ships, not out of compassion or morality, but to hurt the growing US economy.

The UK and Portugal were allies and if their slave ships headed to Brazil (which had slavery until 1882), they were generally unmolested.



Hypocritically, the British Empire had the next best thing to slavery in the form of cheap, caste labor in India, through the East India Company, which they held on to for nearly four centuries. They also exploited cheap labor in China.

Colonel Mustard didn't give a darn about the "coolies," "darkies," or "jolliwogs."






Sources:

https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/countercurrents/2020/09/24/whose-redemption-the-slave-trade-abolition-and-british-interventions-on-the-high-seas/#

https://www.britannica.com/topic/East-India-Company

[yardwork]

28. The Confederate States would not have abolished slavery.

They were created to perpetuate and extend the reach of slavery into the new western states.

You've read the old propaganda that was created after the war to excuse and blur the truth.

[Deminpenn]

6. Used to get annoyed by those

who call Columbus Day Indigenous People day. But know now it's just a silly distraction and there are bigger fish to fry. You can't have "culture wars" if one side refuses to take the bait.

[GB_RN]

7. Because, Of Course They Are.

Can’t let MLK outshine the traitors they worship like gods.

Fuck them.

[Scalded Nun]

8. Garbage does what garbage is

[Paladin]

9. If they honor Lee, they might as well honor Hitler. (nt)

[leftyladyfrommo]

10. And the South shall rise again!

Should never have messed with their beloved statues.

[bmichaelh]

11. Slave Hunts

When the Confederates went north, they engaged in slave hunts.

Robert E Lee's name deserves no respect.

Also, Lincoln gave him the opportunity to command the North and he refused.

Lee claimed because he was from the south; but he in fact lived less than 30 minutes from Washington DC.

[travelingthrulife]

12. Supporting traitors. At least these people are consistent.

[Evolve Dammit]

13. Lincoln was way too kind to the traitors. n/t

[JohnSJ]

14. Yeah honor a person who supported slavery. Speaks volumes about Alabama and Mississippi. I cannot repeat the disgust

have for those states.

[Bluethroughu]

15. Seditious Confederates from the past possessed

The Seditious anti-Americans in the present.

[prodigitalson]

16. it does have an internal logic, albeit a deplorable, crude and racist one

your civil rights icon pisses us off so we get to pick someone to piss you off

that is precisely what they are saying...and it tells you as clear as day what they are about

at this point I don't know if it is a lack of self awareness or perfect self awareness

I am starting to think the internal logic of it betrays the latter...which I think is worse

maybe?

[stollen]

17. I'll never donate to another suffering red state

for as long as I live.

[70sEraVet]

18. Tennessee is trying to get its citizens to stop celebrating the Confederacy.....

by using the old tactic that parents used to use to teach their children not to smoke. You know, make a kid smoke so many cigarettes one after another that they get sick? So, Tennessee is punishing its citizens by making them celebrate THREE Confederate holidays -- Robert E. Lee Day, Nathan Bedford Forrest Day, and Confederate Decoration Day!
Of course, so far, the only Tennesseans who have been sickened by the holiday overload, are the citizens who were sick of it BEFORE the cure was started!

[Elessar Zappa]

19. My liberal dad, who hates Trump and is by no means a bigot,

has admired Robert E Lee since he was a child (he was into Civil War history at a young age). I’ve worked on him enough that he finally admits Lee was a traitor but he still retains some good feeling about him! It really confounds me.

[Deminpenn]

24. It's ok to admire military men and women as great leaders of their troops and

excellent tacticians regarless of the outcome of the conflict in which they fought. Rommel, for example, is recognized for his excellence in tank warfare.

[moniss]

20. Racist to their core. nt

[BadgerMom]

22. You can't succeed at honoring someone who is dishonorable.

Stupid, stupid racists.

[Pototan]

23. The United States of America is the only country

that I know of that honors traitors.

[underpants]

25. When Virginia adopted MLK Day they made it Lee-Jackson-King Day

Lee-(Stonewall) Jackson Day was already a state holiday. The order didn’t escape anyone so they separated them and had Lee-Jackson Day on the preceding Friday the MLK Day on Monday. It was a 4 day weekend for state employees. They dumped Lee-Jackson Day in 2020 if memory serves.

[Irish_Dem]

26. They love traitors. And hate the US.

[Orrex]

29. The racist south loves its participation trophies

Of course, so does racist Pennsylvania, so I'm not singling out those below the Mason-Dixon.

[kellytore]

30. Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Texas have holidays that commemorate the birthday

of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. I live in Georgia and I can remember every June 3 was a state holiday honoring this traitor. In 2016, after the Charleston church shootings and due to pressure from companies such as Coca-Cola and others, the state legislature did away with the holiday.

[johnnyfins]

32. Yes, honor a traitor on the very

Day that the confederates finally take over the US Government. Makes sense.

That moron who carried the rebel flag into the capitol on Jan 6 is prolly lovin it. Murka Dammit!!!!!

[Kid Berwyn]

33. Racism Is Alive and Well in Neo-Dixie

Who's your NAZI, Alabama? Mississippi?



Guy's a draft dodger who's never worked a day in his miserable life.
His bio, though, is why the KKKonservatives want to get rid of the Department of Education.