A United States federal statute honoring the birthday of 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 (242–4 in the House Democratic Caucus and 89–77 in the House Republican Conference) with 5 members voting present or abstaining, while the final vote in the Senate on October 19, 1983, was 78–22 (41–4 in the Senate Democratic Caucus and 37–18 in the Senate Republican Conference), 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would have created a holiday on the third Monday in January, but it failed to receive two-thirds support and was later rescinded following an amendment changing its date.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. Illinois adopted a commemoration day in 1969, and made it a paid holiday also in 1973. Other states continued to adopt state holidays up through Utah in 2000.

History National Prior attempts

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.

Passage On July 29, 1983, Indiana Representative Katie Hall introduced a bill to recognize the third Monday in January as a federal holiday "as a day of prayer in King's memory." The Atlanta Constitution argued that declaring the holiday was an inexpensive way to celebrate King's democratic ideals and that it had "been too long about this business already."

On August 2, the House voted 338 to 90 in favor of the bill, passing it on to the Senate. During the Senate deliberation on the bill, Senator Jesse Helms attempted to add amendments to kill the bill and distributed a 400-page FBI report on King describing him as a communist and subversive, leading Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan to throw the report on the ground and refer to it as garbage. Senator Ted Kennedy accused Helms of making false and inaccurate statements, causing Helms to attempt to have Kennedy punished for a violation of rules that prohibit senators from questioning each other's honor. Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker only made Kennedy replace the word "inaccurate". The Senate rejected an attempt to kill the vote by a vote of 76 to 12 on October 18 and later approved the bill by a vote of 78 to 22 on October 19. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law on November 2, 1983, and on January 20, 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.

Congressional vote

Party Total votes Democratic Republican Yes 213 40 253() No 33 100 133() Not Voting 30 18 48() Vacant 0 0 1