"The push to celebrate Martin Luther King with a national holiday became a political movement in itself... In 1982, [Stevie] Wonder, together with King's widow Coretta Scott King, presented Congress with the largest petition in favor of an issue in U.S. history, with six million signatures supporting the national holiday. Conyers had continued to raise the bill at every Congress since 1968, and it eventually passed in a 338 to 90 vote in 1983. President Ronald Reagan finally signed off on the bill in November that year, despite having previously spoken out against the holiday."
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Activists from the United StatesSpiritual teachersCivil rights activistsLawyers from the United StatesMembers of the United States House of Representatives
Original Language: English
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Sources
Martin Luther King Day: Life and Times of MLK, The 'I have a Dream' Civil Rights Leader, Newsweek, David sim & Eve Watling, (21 January 2019)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Conyers
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John Conyers
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