TRIVIA: The Last State to approve the MLK Day holiday

When we asked a few people to guess which state was the last in the union to officially recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday, many pointed to states in the South or out West. But if you had three chances, would you be able to name the final holdout? The answer might surprise you.

Even after Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a national holiday in 1983, several states resisted recognizing it. Arizona’s refusal to observe the holiday famously cost the state the 1993 Super Bowl, which was moved to Pasadena, California. In North Carolina, legislators debated whether King was significant enough to merit a holiday in his honor. By the year 2000, several states made changes regarding the holiday’s recognition. Utah had previously celebrated “Human Rights Day” but officially renamed it Martin Luther King Jr. Day that same year. South Carolina became the last state to make MLK Day a paid holiday for state employees in 2000.

MLK Day image

However, the very last state in the union to fully recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an official holiday was New Hampshire, which did so in 2000, cementing the day’s status as a national observance.