[AFRICAN AMERICAN] SERVICE OF COMMEMORATION DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING. WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL, JAN. 15, 1970. Three typed pages on two leaves, pale yellow paper stock. With three related documents, all stapled together. One is a press release on the stationery of the "Interreligous Committee on Race Relations," the next is minutes of an "Executive Committe Meeting" dated Jan 7, 1970; and the final document is a typed memo headed "URGENT - URGENT" "To Rabbis, Presidents, Delegates / Interreligious Serice of Commemoration / on the occasion of the anniversary of the birthday of Reverend / Martin Luther King Jr. / January 15, 1970 / Tweve Noon / Washington National Cathedral / Major Walter Washington... PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND ..." A fascinating collection of five leaves, saved and stapled together. After Rev. King's death, U.S. Representative John Conyers (a Democrat from Michigan) and U.S. Senator Edward Brooke (a Republican from Massachusetts) introduced a bill in Congress to make King's birthday a national holiday. This took ten years to come to the floor for a vote (in 1979). It was not until November 2, 1983 that President Ronald Regan signed a bill into law creating the holiday, which was first observed by the Federal Government on January 20, 1986. This assemblage of documents from just over 16 years earlier represents, in a real sense, the birth certificate of an American National Holiday -- the only one honoring a modern day figure -- (the others are Columbus and George Washington). Not in OCLC.
PROVENANCE: Estate of Jim Graham, former Washington, DC, Councilman Estimate $200-400
