The holiday for MLK came with bipartisan support in the early 1980’s including Ronald Reagan.
The lone voice against it came from Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. Another reason liberals hated his guts.
I’ve read that conservative Governor Meldrim Thompson of New Hampshire communicated his concerns about naming a national holiday for King.
I assume Thompson’s concerns were over the left-wing connections etc. although the conservative movement of the time was aware of this problem in at least a general way.
Reagan is said to have acknowledged Thompson’s concerns but his action was to join the overhwelming Congressional support for the King holiday.
It would have been better if Reagan supported a King holiday, but named it "Civil Rights Day," and not after King, given his many and serious character flaws and alleged communist connections. His legacy has not lived on to "judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin." With affirmative action quotas, and all of the reverse discrimination going on our lawmakers are doing anything but honoring King's true legacy.
Furthermore, we created a "Presidents Day" that downplays our greatest Presidents, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln should be honored for his civil rights accomplishments, along with King on "Civil Rights Day." And celebrate the founder of our country, George Washington, on his day. "Presidents Day" is too generic and a bad example for our teachers.
You should try to find the video of President Ronald Reagan at the signing ceremony for the MLK day.
If you can’t find the video then I’ll just tell you that it isn’t something he wanted to do but was forced by overwhelming Dim opinion to do.
In the video you can tell that he just didn’t want to sign that document. He was forced into that situation.