New Hampshire House Passes Martin Luther King Holiday Bill

Jet, June 14, 1999

The New Hampshire House recently voted to create a permanent Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, all but ensuring the state will finally join the rest of the nation in honoring the slain civil rights leader.

Over the past 20 years, repeated attempts to create such a holiday have failed.

The House voted 212-148 to add King's name to the state's Civil Rights Day holiday, held the day every other state honors King.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where passage is all but assured. The Senate passed an identical bill earlier in April. Gov. Jeanne Shaheen said that she will sign either bill.

In 1991, as a compromise, lawmakers created Civil Rights Day to honor "the many people from a variety of cultural backgrounds who fought and died in the struggle to gain freedom and equality for all individuals."

Gov. Shaheen, like her predecessor, added King's name to that holiday by proclamation each year.

A King holiday bill first came before the Legislature in 1979 and has been introduced in nearly every two-year session since.