↩ the History · a speech, filed

Signing the King Holiday

Ronald Reagan · the Rose Garden · November 2, 1983
text: The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara · a work of the United States government, in the public domain
colour carries the act's function; a dashed underline marks a predicted misfire; hover or focus any span for its filing

The President. Mrs. King, members of the King family, distinguished Members of the Congress, ladies and gentlemen, honored guests, I'm very pleased to welcome you to the White House, the home that belongs to all of us, the American people.

When I was thinking of the contributions to our country of the man that we're honoring today, a passage attributed to the American poet John Greenleaf Whittier comes to mind. "Each crisis brings its word and deed." In America, in the fifties and sixties, one of the important crises we faced was racial discrimination. The man whose words and deeds in that crisis stirred our nation to the very depths of its soul was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King was born in 1929 in an America where, because of the color of their skin, nearly 1 in 10 lived lives that were separate and unequal. Most black Americans were taught in segregated schools. Across the country, too many could find only poor jobs, toiling for low wages. They were refused entry into hotels and restaurants, made to use separate facilities. In a nation that proclaimed liberty and justice for all, too many black Americans were living with neither.

In one city, a rule required all blacks to sit in the rear of public buses. But in 1955, when a brave woman named Rosa Parks was told to move to the back of the bus, she said, "No." A young minister in a local Baptist church, Martin Luther King, then organized a boycott of the bus company—a boycott that stunned the country. Within 6 months the courts had ruled the segregation of public transportation unconstitutional.

Dr. King had awakened something strong and true, a sense that true justice must be colorblind, and that among white and black Americans, as he put it, "Their destiny is tied up with our destiny, and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom; we cannot walk alone."

In the years after the bus boycott, Dr. King made equality of rights his life's work. Across the country, he organized boycotts, rallies, and marches. Often he was beaten, imprisoned, but he never stopped teaching nonviolence. "Work with the faith", he told his followers, "that unearned suffering is redemptive." In 1964 Dr. King became the youngest man in history to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr. King's work brought him to this city often. And in one sweltering August day in 1963, he addressed a quarter of a million people at the Lincoln Memorial. If American history grows from two centuries to twenty, his words that day will never be forgotten. "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."

In 1968 Martin Luther King was gunned down by a brutal assassin, his life cut short at the age of 39. But those 39 short years had changed America forever. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had guaranteed all Americans equal use of public accommodations, equal access to programs financed by Federal funds, and the right to compete for employment on the sole basis of individual merit. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 had made certain that from then on black Americans would get to vote. But most important, there was not just a change of law; there was a change of heart. The conscience of America had been touched. Across the land, people had begun to treat each other not as blacks and whites, but as fellow Americans.

And since Dr. King's death, his father, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., and his wife, Coretta King, have eloquently and forcefully carried on his work. Also his family have joined in that cause.

Now our nation has decided to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by setting aside a day each year to remember him and the just cause he stood for. We've made historic strides since Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus. As a democratic people, we can take pride in the knowledge that we Americans recognized a grave injustice and took action to correct it. And we should remember that in far too many countries, people like Dr. King never have the opportunity to speak out at all.

But traces of bigotry still mar America. So, each year on Martin Luther King Day, let us not only recall Dr. King, but rededicate ourselves to the Commandments he believed in and sought to live every day: Thou shall love thy God with all thy heart, and thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. And I just have to believe that all of us—if all of us, young and old, Republicans and Democrats, do all we can to live up to those Commandments, then we will see the day when Dr. King's dream comes true, and in his words, "All of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, '... land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'"

Thank you, God bless you, and I will sign it.

Mrs. King. Thank you, Mr. President, Vice President Bush, Majority Leader Baker and the distinguished congressional and senatorial delegations, and other representatives who've gathered here, and friends.

All right-thinking people, all right-thinking Americans are joined in spirit with us this day as the highest recognition which this nation gives is bestowed upon Martin Luther King, Jr., one who also was the recipient of the highest recognition which the world bestows, the Nobel Peace Prize.

In his own life's example, he symbolized what was right about America, what was noblest and best, what human beings have pursued since the beginning of history. He loved unconditionally. He was in constant pursuit of truth, and when he discovered it, he embraced it. His nonviolent campaigns brought about redemption, reconciliation, and justice. He taught us that only peaceful means can bring about peaceful ends, that our goal was to create the love community.

America is a more democratic nation, a more just nation, a more peaceful nation because Martin Luther King, Jr., became her preeminent nonviolent commander.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and his spirit live within all of us. Thank God for the blessing of his life and his leadership and his commitment. What manner of man was this? May we make ourselves worthy to carry on his dream and create the love community. Thank you.

The divergences

"Dr. King had awakened something strong and true, a sense that true justice must be colorblind" — the White House files an Assertion about what the bus boycott taught the country; the civil rights lawyers who had seen the Court reject this administration's position in Bob Jones five months earlier file a Frame-set, after which a remedy that counts by race is the injustice and the people opposing such remedies are King's heirs. They part on function. The test sits inside the same sentence: the quotation brought in to support the awakening says that destinies are tied and freedoms bound together, which is a claim about what two peoples owe each other. The day is given its meaning here, six paragraphs before the pen.

"Their destiny is tied up with our destiny, and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom; we cannot walk alone" — at the Lincoln Memorial the possessives had owners. King was warning black listeners against distrust of all white people, because many of "our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today," had come to see their freedom bound to the movement's. Relayed behind the phrase "among white and black Americans," the pronouns lose their assignment and the sentence becomes a symmetry between two equal parties. The ceremony files a Report; a listener who can place the sentence files a move on the quotation rather than on the world. They part on target. What follows in King is the pledge the borrowed half was building toward: "we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood" — the quotation is accurate and it is a selection. The same address arraigns the country for a check returned marked "insufficient funds" and demands payment; it names a Mississippi "sweltering with the heat of injustice" and "the unspeakable horrors of police brutality." The ceremony files a Report of the most famous sentence in American oratory; an audience that can supply the rest of the address files the choice of stanza. They part on motive — whether the passage quoted is the passage or the passage that asks nobody for anything. The holiday takes its name from the dream and enters the record without the bill of exchange.

"But most important, there was not just a change of law; there was a change of heart" — read narrow, a claim about what the 1960s produced, and defensible. Read wide, a ranking that places the decisive remedy where no statute reaches, which makes a day of remembrance the instrument that fits the problem. They part on scope. Everything prescribed after this sentence is remembrance, rededication, and two commandments, and the sentence is the point at which the law stops being the subject under discussion.

"The Voting Rights Act of 1965 had made certain that from then on black Americans would get to vote" — the archive's Johnson page files the same statute with its machinery attached: examiners at work "by Tuesday morning" in 10 to 15 counties, poll tax suits in three named States, and a pledge that "we will not delay, or we will not hesitate, or we will not turn aside." Here the Act is entered in the past perfect with "from then on," a guarantee already delivered — sixteen months after the same administration had contested the terms of its renewal. They part on orientation: keyed to a statute somebody has to enforce, or to a country's account of itself as finished. The two ceremonies are the archive's cleanest pen-and-words pair. In the Rotunda the words name what the pen will set in motion by Tuesday; in the Rose Garden the words name what the pen has been spared.

"And we should remember that in far too many countries, people like Dr. King never have the opportunity to speak out at all" — the coalition that fought this bill files an Order about proportion, and hears its objection given a dignified form. The family in the front row files a comparison the speech has already refuted four paragraphs above: "Often he was beaten, imprisoned." They part on orientation. This is the one sentence in the remarks that answers an objection, and it answers by moving the standard abroad.

"Thank you, God bless you, and I will sign it" — the House had passed the bill 338 to 90 and the Senate 78 to 22, margins that survive a veto, so the signature was the only move the day left to the signer. The ceremony files a Declaration whose effect is complete in whatever hand holds the pen; the campaign that put the bill on the desk files an announcement, in the first person singular, of an act it produced against this signer's stated opposition. They part on function. Johnson's parallel sentence hands the act away — "the act that you have passed that I will sign today" — and names the Congress in the handing. These four words name no one, and the work the pen could not do had already been done in the six paragraphs before them.