A bill to separate Arkansas' dual celebration of the birthdays of civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee cleared a Senate committee Thursday.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson personally presented Senate Bill 519 by Sen. David Wallace, R-Leachville. It passed in a voice vote and moves to the Senate for further consideration.
The bill would leave the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the third Monday in January. It is a holiday for state employees.
It would move Robert E. Lee's celebration to the second Saturday in October -- near the day of his death. Lee's day would be commemorated by gubernatorial proclamation. It would not be a holiday for state employees.
Celebrating the Confederate general and the civil-rights icon on the same day is "a matter in conflict, and celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King is a recognition that is entitled to a day of itself," Hutchinson told the Senate Education Committee.
The Republican emphasized a family connection to the Civil War, saying that after he became governor, he learned his great-great-grandfather -- Alexander Simpson Hutchinson -- fought for the Confederacy.
He said he is fascinated by his family's history, and by Isaac Murphy, who voted against secession and later became the eighth governor of Arkansas, and with King, who Hutchinson said was an inspiration.
"As I grew up, looking at his sacrifice, his struggle, his leadership, his commitment to justice, that is something that should heal our nation, should bring us together in celebration," he said. "That's where my heart is."
Hutchinson pitched the bill as an attempt to educate students about both King and Lee.
SB519 directs the education commissioner to develop materials to emphasize the "historic work of American civil rights leaders, including without limitation Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his pursuit of justice in civil society" and "civilian and military leadership during the [Civil War] period and how the lessons of that era can inform contemporary society."
Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, who voted for the bill and is a teacher, said both Northern and Southern military leaders have a rich history that students should know about.
"The civility that was expressed between [Union Gen. Ulysses S.] Grant and Lee upon the surrender at Appomattox -- is that a part of what you want our children to know more about rather than the dissension that we have so much of in the state and the nation?" she asked Hutchinson. The governor replied that the bill is about healing.
But Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, who voted against the bill, said he agrees that the days should be separated, but has not seen a solution that he supports.
The fact that Lee's day would not be a state holiday is a problem, he said. Like the governor, Clark said his great-great-grandfather fought for the Confederacy.
"I know you're coming from a good place and I respect that," Clark told the governor, "But there are folks who want me and others to be ashamed of that, and I can't."
Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning, who also spoke against the bill, said King and Lee were both men of conviction.
Like King fought for civil liberties, Lee fought for states' rights, Johnson said.
"This separation is just like segregation," he said. "The best healing that we can have as a state or a nation is integration of ideas."
In addition to Arkansas, two other former Confederate states, Alabama and Mississippi, continue to celebrate a joint King-Lee holiday.
In the early 1980s, state employees were given a holiday with the option of taking off for either Lee's or King's birthday in January, or for their own birthday, according to Arkansas Democrat-Gazette archives.
In 1985, the Legislature voted to merge the two birthdays into a state holiday on the third Monday in January, with Act 985 being signed by then-Gov. Bill Clinton. The federal holiday, on the same day, is for King only.
Efforts to unknot the holiday began soon after. In 1989, lawmakers proposed adding an extra state holiday, giving employees the option of taking off for their own birthday or Lee's birthday on the fourth Monday in January. The bill failed.
The Legislature did not push the issue again until 2015, when two House members, a Republican and a Democrat, filed separate bills proposing that Lee be celebrated with a separate day of remembrance.
Despite receiving an endorsement from Hutchinson, both of those bills failed in committee.
Information for this article was contributed by John Moritz of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 03/03/2017