Thread by @SethCotlar

In 1983 Harris conducted a poll about the proposed MLK day. People who voted for Reagan in '80 opposed it 48/44, people who voted for Carter supported it 69/25.

In 1983 Reagan still thought MLK might have been a Communist. We know this because he said it to his friend Meldrim Thompson, who sat on the board of the John Birch Society. IN 1983!
nytimes.com/1983/10/22/us/…

After this 1983 story broke about Reagan and a Bircher corresponding about MLK being a commie, Reagan perfunctorily apologized to MLK’s family and then went golfing at Augusta National, which notoriously had no black members at the time.

In 1983, 112 federal lawmakers—90 representatives (77 Republicans, 13 Democrats) and 22 senators (18 Republicans, 4 Democrats) voted against commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy with a federal holiday.

MLK, 1965. “It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation, not merely for the vitriolic works & violent actions of the bad people who bomb a church in Birmingham, Alabama…but for the appalling silence & indifference of the good ppl who sit around and say, "Wait.”

“Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.” MLK address at Oberlin College, 1965.

www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/B…