A group of lawmakers will try this year to rename Utah's Human Rights Day in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the Nobel Peace Prize winner and civil rights leader assassinated 32 years ago.
Members of the minority community have wanted this change for years, but this is the first year legislation has been submitted, said Sen. Pete Suazo, D-Salt Lake City, the bill's sponsor."Human Rights Day does not give due credit to the contributions of this great man. As a leader, he raised the consciousness about prejudice and discrimination, corporate advancement and especially voting rights," he said.
King would have been 71 years old Jan. 15 had he lived. "He opened many, many doors," Suazo said. "I often wonder what our country could have been with his continued leadership. I think we would have been a stronger country."
A personal appearance in 1986 by Coretta Scott King did not persuade the Utah Legislature to dedicate a holiday in her slain husband's name. Instead, lawmakers called it Human Rights Day, arguing that other people were instrumental in human rights efforts.
Proponents hope public sentiment -- and legislative sentiment -- has shifted enough to make a change this year. Utah is more diverse than ever, said Rep. Duane Bordeaux, D-Salt Lake, the only black member of the Legislature. And, Suazo says, Utah is the last state to acknowledge King by naming the day in his honor.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, which each year makes presentations about civil rights efforts and honors, will make a special plea to lawmakers in both houses Monday to change the name. They say King's widow may make another personal plea to lawmakers in a visit later in the session.
As Utah's Legislature enters its 53rd session Monday, an effort is also afoot to tweak the state constitution enough to bump back the Legislature's opening day so it doesn't conflict with the federally recognized holiday. This change requires a two-thirds vote of each house and voter approval.
"I think it's important for history," Bordeaux said. "Dr. King stood for non-violence and justice and equality for all people. If people truly understood what he stood for, what legacy he leaves, I think they would be more likely to vote for these bills."
But the majority of the Legislature's mostly white, conservative LDS members have long said the greatest honor the day can have is to have their gathering begin on that date.
The Legislature has a celebration, lawmakers have said. The black community makes speeches.
That is not enough, members of Utah's black and minority communities say. "Give us our day," Tarry Wilkinson, a 21-year-old black woman, said. "Let us honor this man the way so many other states do."
It is this difference in perspective between black and white Utahns that underlies the controversy over the double duty for the third Monday in January.
Proposed changes would bring an end to years of criticism and controversy from those who believe lawmakers' trumping of the state holiday amounts to a mocking of its importance.
Bettye Gillespie, a member of the state's Martin Luther King Commission, has called Utah's behavior "contempt" for the holiday.
"We do see it as a slam, and the vast majority of Utah's legislators, who are not African-American and do not have the experiences that I have, cannot understand why this is so important," Wilkinson said.
Members of the Salt Lake branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, known as the NAACP, have worked for years to change the celebrated name in Utah from Human Rights Day to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Even Bordeaux knows the name change might be hard for people to swallow.
It's ignorance, he said, and a lack of understanding.
Senate Minority Leader, Scott Howell, D-Granite, is a co-sponsor of both pieces of legislation and thinks it is time for both changes in Utah. It's a little "embarrassing," Howell said, that kids are out of school and others in state government are off that day in honor of the holiday. "And we're starting the Legislature."
Howell is sensitive to the Utah Constitution, which mandates the 45-day session start on the third Monday of January. But he sees no reason it can't be amended to the third Tuesday instead.
House Speaker Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, said this week he supports that part of the proposed changes. "It takes us out of the controversy," Stephens said, although he isn't sure why people don't get upset lawmakers work through Presidents Day in February. "But if it is important to them, then let's move it."
Gov. Mike Leavitt has always said the holiday was adequately celebrated. This week, he wouldn't say whether he supports the name change, only that he hadn't put much thought into the efforts.