Connect with us

Featured

Kabir Karriem Wants to Stop Lee from Sharing Holiday with MLK

Published

on

By Bobby Harrison

Mississippi Today

Martin Luther King Jr. File photo

In the 1980s as a national effort was made to establish a holiday for civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., the Mississippi Legislature struck an unusual compromise as many other states did at the time.

The compromise was to honor King, recognized universally as the leader of the fight to end racial discrimination in Mississippi and in other primarily Southern states, and Confederate General Robert E. Lee on the same day. That holiday will be recognized on Monday.

State Rep. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, said he believes it is time that King had the holiday to himself. He has introduced legislation, like he has since coming to the state House in 2016, to remove Lee from the holiday.

“Mississippi needs to move into the future,” said Karriem. “We have changed the state flag (to eliminate the Confederate battle emblem from the design). This is the next logical step.”

Karriem said only Mississippi and Alabama still honor Lee and King on the same day.

In addition, the legislation would eliminate the state holiday of Confederate Memorial Day, which is held on the last Monday in April.

“The bill has never gotten out of committee even though I file it ever year,” said Karriem. “But a lot of the bills filed by Democrats do not get out of committee.”

Karriem said the legislation has multiple co-sponsors, but no white member of the House has signed on as a co-sponsor.


This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Advertisement

Ole Miss Men’s Basketball

Mon, Nov 4Long Island University Logovs Long Island University W, 90-60
Fri, Nov 8Grambling Logovs GramblingW, 66-64
Tue, Nov 12South Alabama Logovs South AlabamaW, 64-54
Sat, Nov 16Colorado State Logovs Colorado StateW, 84-69
Thu, Nov 21Oral Roberts Logovs Oral RobertsL, 100-68
Thu, Nov 28BYU Logovs BYUW, 96-85 OT
Fri, Nov 29Purdue Logovs 13 PurdueL, 80-78
Tue, Dec 3Louisville Logo@ LouisvilleW, 86-63
Sat, Dec 7Lindenwood Logovs LindenwoodW, 86-53
Sat, Dec 14Georgia Logovs Southern MissW, 77-46
Tue, Dec 17Southern Logovs SouthernW, 74-61
Sat, Dec 21Queens University Logovs Queens UniversityW, 80-62
Sat, Dec 28Memphis Logo@ MemphisL, 87-70
Sat, Jan 4Georgia Logovs GeorgiaW, 63-51
Wed, Jan 8Arkansas Logo@ 23 ArkansasW, 73-66
Sat, Jan 11LSU Logovs LSUW, 77-65
Tue, Jan 14Alabama Logo@ 5 AlabamaW, 74-64
Sat, Jan 18Mississippi State Logo@ 17 Mississippi StateL, 81-84
Wed, Jan 22Texas A&M State Logovs 13 Texas A&ML, 62-63
Sat, Jan 25Missouri Logo@ Missouri5:00 PM
SECN
Wed, Jan 29Texas Logovs Texas8:00 PM
ESPN2
Sat, Feb 1Auburn Logovs 2 Auburn3:00 PM
TBA
Tue, Feb 4Kentucky Logovs 10 Kentucky6:00 PM
ESPN
Sat, Feb 8LSU Logo@ LSU7:30 PM
SECN
Wed, Feb 12South Carolina Logo@ South Carolina6:00 PM
SECN
Sat, Feb 15Mississippi State Logovs 17 Mississippi State5:00 PM
TBA
Sat, Feb 22Auburn Logo@ Vanderbilt2:30 PM
SECN
Wed, Feb 26Auburn Logo@ 2 Auburn6:00 PM
TBA
Sat, Mar 1Oklahoma Logovs 12 Oklahoma1:00 PM
TBA
Wed, Mar 5Tennessee Logovs 1 Tennessee8:00 PM
TBA
Sat, Mar 8Florida Logo@ 6 Florida5:00 PM
SECN

@ COPYRIGHT 2024 BY HT MEDIA LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. HOTTYTODDY.COM IS AN INDEPENT DIGITAL ENTITY NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI.