Now more than ever, Lexington County would be wrong to stop observing MLK Day

As an attorney with the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, I have had the pleasure of visiting South Carolina numerous times in recent years.

Whether I was teaching kids in a Sunday school class about the danger of discrimination, lecturing at Furman University about the impact of President Donald Trump’s travel ban or simply eating out at a local restaurant, I have always enjoyed both South Carolina and its people.

As our nation grapples with the fallout of the latest killing of an unarmed African American, I cannot help but feel strangely comforted by South Carolina — and comforted by the capacity of people to change for the better.

A bad idea

Think about it:

I, an African American Muslim lawyer, can repeatedly drive from my home in Georgia all the way to South Carolina, stay in any hotel of my choosing, speak at public universities and visit mosques that stand alongside churches — all in a state that is represented by a black man in the U.S. Senate and was recently governed by an Indian American woman.

None of this would have been possible a generation ago, and all of this reminds me how quickly society can change for the better. Even with all the problems that still exist, South Carolina is a sign of progress.

That’s why Lexington County’s plan to drop Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an official holiday is such a terrible idea.

And especially now.

A poor message

According to The State newspaper, Lexington County may soon reduce the number of observed holidays and increase annual leave for employees.

The county plans to do this by eliminating Presidents Day, Veterans Day, the day after Christmas, Confederate Memorial Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Lexington County claims that the purpose of this change is to provide more days of service to constituents.

However, even if Lexington County’s motives for dropping the King holiday are purely about increasing its ability to serve the community, it surely must recognize how insulting this move seems.

Martin Luther King Jr. died trying to turn the tide against racial, economic and social injustice across America — and when we recognize King every year we are also reminding ourselves of the progress our society gained as a result of the civil rights movement that he successfully led.

By dropping the King holiday, Lexington County would send the message that his holiday isn’t important enough to be maintained.

The county would be saying that one extra day of work is more important than recognizing the legacy of a man and a movement that changed millions of lives for the better.

Bigotry is back

And this decision would be made all the worse by the fact that racism and other forms of bigotry have returned with a vengeance.

From Orthodox Jews murdered at a kosher store in New Jersey to Muslim college students shot dead in their North Carolina apartment to Hispanic families slaughtered while shopping at a Walmart in Texas — from young activists run over by a neo-Nazi in Charlottesville to African American churchgoers gunned down during bible study in Charleston — bigotry has made a comeback with deadly consequences.

So this would be the worst possible time for any county anywhere to stop observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Honor progress

If Lexington County wants to drop a holiday, it should by all means drop Confederate Memorial Day: for perhaps obvious reasons, that holiday should have never existed anyway. But the county should not add insult to injury by dropping Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Now more than ever Lexington County and every other government entity in our nation must continue to remember, celebrate and hold onto the progress that the civil rights movement achieved across America.

Edward Ahmed Mitchell is deputy executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 7:37 PM.