On Wednesday, the Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development (FRED) Committee rejected a bill that would have moved the celebration of the Robert E. Lee holiday to the second Monday in October.
The legislation would have moved the Robert E. Lee state holiday from its current position on the calendar – the same day as the Martin Luther King Jr. birthday holiday in January – to the Columbus Day holiday in October.
Senate Bill 130 (SB130) was sponsored by State Senator Vivian Figures.
“I brought this bipartisan bill two years ago along with the late Representative Steve McMillan,” Figures said. “We and Mississippi are the only two states that celebrate both of these men on the same day.”
“We can’t move the Martin Luther King Holiday because it is a federal holiday,” Figures explained. “October was the time of his (Lee’s) death.”
Figures said that Lee was indicted for treason by a grand jury, owned slaves, had slaves whipped, broke up slave families, and led an army that enslaved free Black people and killed African American federal troops who tried to surrender.
Figures said that advancing her legislation would benefit the state’s image and boost the economy.
A public hearing had been called on SB130, but the people asked to come to the Committee and speak against the bill were not present.
The Committee voted not to give a favorable report to SB130 by a voice vote.
Following the vote, Figures asked for a roll call vote.
Chairman Garlan Gudger told Sen. Figures, “No, you may not.”
“I want the record to show that the African-American women voted for the bill, and all of the White Republican men and the White Republican woman voted no,” Figures said.
“I am disappointed, but I am not surprised,” Figures told reporters after the vote by the Committee.
This is the third year the Legislature has refused to advance this legislation. Figures was not optimistic that the bill would pass next year.
“I see the writing on the wall,” Figures said. “Somebody or something is putting pressure on them because even members I thought would support it didn’t.”
Alabama Today asked why not move the holiday back a week so that King has a weekend and Lee has his own weekend closer to his actual birthday.
“The state doesn’t want that – that costs money,” Figures said. “They don’t want another state employee holiday.”
Alabama Today asked why not move it to June and celebrate it on the same days as Jefferson Davis’s birthday.
“I wanted a day with a connection to Lee,” Figures said. “He died on October 12.”
Figures was asked why not just eliminate the celebration of Robert E. Lee Day.
“That definitely won’t pass,” Figures said.
Lee, the former Commandant at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a veteran of the War with Mexico was a Colonel in the U.S. Army who resigned his commission when his native State of Virginia voted to secede from the Union. Lee then accepted a command as a general in the Confederate States of America in 1861. Lee would become a military history legend in command of the CSA’s Army of Northern Virginia. Following the Civil War, he was President of the College now known as Washington and Lee University. Lee has been admired by Americans, particularly Southerners, for over 150 years. Alabama has celebrated the life of the beloved Confederate General with a state holiday for over a hundred years.
Martin Luther King was a Montgomery Pastor who was the acknowledged leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement. He led the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery after the first march was beaten by State Troopers and the Birmingham civil rights protests while preaching non-violence. King is a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and is noted for his speeches and writings, including “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and his “I Have a Dream Speech.” King was assassinated in Memphis in 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill making King’s birthday a national holiday. When King’s birthday became a holiday, the Alabama Legislature moved the already existing Robert E. Lee holiday to the same day as the King holiday.
Wednesday was the 12th legislative day of the 2023 Alabama Regular Legislative Session.
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