Lincoln Fired by King

Lincoln Fired by King

                                                                                                 by R.D. Gill

Through out the 1960’s and 70’s, when I was a student, we had two separate holidays in February. Washington’s birthday on the 22nd and Lincoln’s on he 12th. They were known to the general public as National Holidays even though only one actually was. It was the states and the local municipalities that chose to honor Lincoln. Few people knew that Lincoln’s birthday wasn’t a national holiday and those that did most likely didn’t care because the man was being honored in most locations anyway. It was better really because the federal government, at that time, only had the power to give federal employees and a few others such as federal bank employees the day off.

Closely aligned with this thinking, in 1968, the federal government decided they could give yet another benefit to federal employees by changing some of the holidays celebration dates from actual calendar dates to specific days of the month such as the third Monday of the month in the case of Washington’s birthday. The name of the holiday was not changed. It remained Washington’s birthday then as it still is today. The bill was also supported by American business because it provided an opportunity for stores to offer three day “sales” instead of one day sales thus increasing their profits. 

Naturally enough the question then arose as to what, if anything, should be done with Lincoln’s birthday? Apparently it was not thought wise, for business purposes, to have two three day sales within ten days of each other. Of course if they made a three day affair for Washington and not for Lincoln certain sectors of the public might object especially because the celebration of both births had been celebrated for so long that the two presidents came, for better or worse, to be viewed as quite similar and equal in status, by the public. Stores began to advertise their three day sales on Washington’s long weekend as being one big sale to “celebrate” the births of both presidents and calling it President’s Day in spite of the fact that as early as the 1950’s the name had been considered by the federal government and the proposal rejected. 

This version drew complaints from workers who had lost a day off in the shuffling. It didn’t appear there was anything to be done about it because business’ didn’t want to three day sales too close together. Eventually the decision was made to create Martin Luther King Juniors’ birthday, in January, a federal holiday. The spacing for that was perfect – a month apart; a month between sales! And so Mr. Lincoln was fired by American business’ for not being profitable enough and was replaced with a much more financially viable Martin Luther King Jr. who had not even been a president. Without federal support for Lincoln’s birthday state and local governments began to adopt the “President’s Day” frame of mind and made their holiday coincide with the federal version. 

With no widespread celebration of his birth, and with the emphasis now officially placed on Martin Luther King Jr.,  Honest Abe was forgotten over time. And so Mr. Lincoln was for all practical purposes, fired from his position as a major and honorable American historical figure.