On January 16, 2006, Greenville County, South Carolina, will be the last county in the U.S. to officially adopt Martin Luther King Day as a paid holiday.
Lee-Jackson-King Day was a holiday celebrated in the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1984 to 2000.
Robert E. Lee’s birthday (January 19, 1807) has been celebrated as a Virginia holiday since 1889. In 1904, the legislature added the birthday of Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson (January 21, 1824) to the holiday, and Lee-Jackson Day was born.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan approved an Act of Congress declaring January 19 to be a national holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Since 1978, Virginia had celebrated King’s birthday in conjunction with New Year’s Day. To comply with the federal decree, the Virginia legislature simply combined King’s celebration with the existing Lee-Jackson holiday.
The incongruous nature of the holiday, which simultaneously celebrated the lives of Confederate generals and a civil rights icon, did not escape the notice of Virginia lawmakers. In 2000, Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore proposed splitting Lee-Jackson-King Day into two separate holidays, with Lee-Jackson day being celebrated the Friday before what would become Martin Luther King Day. The measure was approved and the two holidays are now celebrated separately.