In this photo made with a long exposure, snowplow lights streak past the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. Ceremonies scheduled for the site on Monday to mark the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday, were canceled because of the weather. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

There’s not much, if anything, humorous about the long, nasty battle that played out in Congress and the Senate, and in many states (Yes, sad to say, prominent among them was New Hampshire), over whether an official holiday should be enacted to pay tribute to Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.

But it must have been difficult for observers – not to mention the Senators themselves – to stifle a belly-laugh when, during Senate testimony in October 1983, liberal Democratic U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan from New York took to the Senate floor, threw a 300-page document onto the floor, declared it “a packet of filth,” and proceeded to stomp on it quite vigorously.

The battle over civil rights, of course, went much deeper, lasted much, much longer, writing in real time one of the most important volumes in the history of the United States.

On Monday, we here in New Hampshire will observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day – not “Civil Rights Day,” not “Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Day,” but “Martin Luther King Jr. Day,” thanks to the tireless efforts of so many thoughtful folks from elected officials to local community activists and civil rights advocates.

In 1999, at long last, the New Hampshire legislature approved a measure to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day an official state holiday, to be observed annually on the closest Monday to his Jan. 15 birthday.

Then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen signed the measure into law that June, and in 2000, we Granite Staters observed our first Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Whatever your plans, this long holiday weekend presents a good opportunity to make some time to reflect on King’s legacy, especially as it pertains to his uncanny ability to hold an audience of one hundred or one million spellbound while inspiring so many of them to join the civil and economic rights movement and put an end to racism.

King and the civil rights era will be among topics in the spotlight come February, which is Black History Month. And coming up this summer will be the 60th anniversary of the day that King delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.

As for that infamous October day in 1983, the Senator who submitted that document to the full body was one U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, the North Carolina Republican who quite obviously loathed the very idea of even considering adopting a federal holiday to pay homage to the man whose work as a passionate preacher and tireless, never-give-up Civil Rights advocate whose leadership transformed the lives and livelihoods of millions of Black Americans beginning in the 1950s and 60s.

In that 300-page document, Helms, who was actually a registered Democrat until president Richard Nixon inspired him to go GOP in 1970, blasted King’s opposition to the Vietnam War, a mild criticism compared to many of the accusations Helms leveled against King over the years.

For instance, he accused King of espousing “action-oriented Marxism,” according to published accounts. He described him as “a Communist and a pervert,” and characterized civil rights activists a bunch of “moral degenerates,” New York-based journalist George Zornick wrote in an article that appeared on www.americanprogress.org shortly after Helms’s death in July 2008.

“What really set Jesse Helms apart is that he was the last prominent, unabashedly white racist politician in this countryóa title that one hopes will now be permanently retired,” Zornick wrote.

Back here in New Hampshire, those of us who have been around awhile still wince a bit when the topic of conversation turns to the tedious, drawn-out, often divisive and contentious process that was finally settled with Shaheen’s signature.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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