Malcolm_X_Day

Malcolm X Day

Malcolm X Day

American holiday


Malcolm X Day is an American holiday in honor of Malcolm X that is celebrated on either May 19 (his birthday) or the third Friday of May. The commemoration of the civil rights leader has been proposed as an official state holiday in the U.S. state of Illinois in 2015 and Missouri as recent as 2019. As of present, only the cities of Berkeley and Oakland in California, observe the holiday with city offices and schools closed.[1]

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History

The Malcolm X Day holiday has been an official holiday in the municipality of Berkeley, California since 1979.[2] Since then, there have been multiple proposals for the holiday to be official elsewhere. Most recently in 2014, a proposal put forth by the Council of Islamic Organizations of Chicago to make the holiday in the U.S. state of Illinois.[3] The Illinois proposal differs from the Berkeley, California resolution in that the holiday would be observed May 19 instead of the third Friday in May.[4] Before that, unsuccessful attempts were made in Atlanta, Georgia, and Washington, D.C., with numerous calls for it to be celebrated alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Day[5] as a federal holiday.[6] In 1993, this holiday was proposed at the federal level to Congress as H.J.R. #323 by Congressman Charles Rangel.[7] In 2015, the Illinois Senate unanimously passed the resolution for the official holiday designation where the law "... officially designated 'May 19, 2015, and every May 19 thereafter' as Malcolm X Day.[8] Though the resolution passed making the holiday official, the Illinois official list of holidays still has yet to reflect the holiday.[9]

Observances by state

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See also

Notes


    References

    1. Malcolm X Day celebrated at namesake school, archived from the original on 2014-11-10, retrieved 2012-01-27
    2. Chambers, Bill (May 20, 2015). "Illinois Designates May 18 as Malcolm Day".
    3. "We Need a Malcolm X Day", Time, January 20, 2012
    4. Chambers, Bill (May 19, 2015). "Illinois Designates May 19 as Malcolm X Day". The Chicago Monitor. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
    5. "Illinois State Holidays". Archived from the original on 2016-02-01. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
    6. Gay, Kathlyn (2007). African-American Holidays, Festivals and Celebrations. Detroit: Omnigraphics. p. 284. ISBN 978-0-7808-0779-2.
    7. "Home". www.malcolmxfestival.com.
    8. "Today is Malcolm X Day". Delco News Network.
    9. "Ferguson National Response Network". Ferguson National Response Network.

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