TRIVIA: The Last State to approve the MLK Day holiday
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Posted January 1, 1970
When we asked a few people to guess which State was the last in the union to recognize Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a national holiday many selected states out west or in the south. Given three chances could you name the last holdout? The answer may surprise you.
Even after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day became a national holiday in 1983, there were states that refused to recognize it. Arizona’s opposition to MLK Day lost the state the 1993 Super Bowl which was moved to Pasadena California. North Carolina legislators questioned whether King was important enough to have a holiday named after him.The year 2000 saw a number of changes with respect to the treatment of and recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Utah celebrated “Human Rights Day” until changing it to MLK Day in 2000. South Carolina was the last state to approve MLK Day as a paid holiday for state emplolyees in 2000. But the last state in the union to recognize MLK Day was New Hampshire, which approved it in 2000.