Malcolm X Day


Malcolm X Day is an American holiday in honor of Malcolm X that is celebrated on either May 19 or the third Friday of May. The commemoration of the civil rights leader has been proposed as an official state holiday in the U.S. state of Illinois in 2015. As of present, only the city of Berkeley, California observes the holiday with city offices and schools closed.

History

The Malcolm X Day holiday has been an official holiday in the municipality of Berkeley, California since 1979. Since then, there have been multiple proposals for the holiday to be official elsewhere. Most recently in 2015, a proposal put forth by the Council of Islamic Organizations of Chicago to make the holiday official in the U.S. state of Illinois. The Illinois proposal differs from the Berkeley, California resolution in that the holiday would be observed May 19 instead of the third Friday in May. Before that, unsuccessful attempts were made in Atlanta, Georgia, and Washington, D.C., with numerous calls for it to be celebrated alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a federal holiday. In 1993, this holiday was proposed at the federal level to Congress as H.J.R. #323 by Congressman Charles Rangel. In 2015, the Illinois Senate unanimously passed the resolution for the official holiday designation where the law "... officially designated 'May 19, 2015, and every May 19 thereafter' as Malcolm X Day. Though the resolution passed making the holiday official, the Illinois official list of holidays still has yet to reflect the holiday.

Observances by state

Origins

MalcolmX , and also known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, was an American Muslim minister and a human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.