Local News - October 2002

NAACP: Schools should recognize MLK holiday

By JEREMY ASHTON, LTN Staff Writer

October 2, 2002 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People wants the Lincoln County Board of Education to recognize Martin Luther King’s birthday as an official holiday.

NAACP representatives will discuss their grievance at the board’s meeting tonight at 7 in the Board of Education building.

“We’re a little offended because the county and the city and the state recognize Martin Luther King’s birthday as a holiday, and the school system does not,” said George B. Creed, the secretary of the Lincoln branch of the NAACP.

Rather than making King’s birthday an official holiday, the school system treats it as an optional teacher workday, giving students the third Monday in January off and leaving teachers with the option of taking an annual leave day. Creed said this sends the wrong message to children who need to know about King.

Most of the school systems in the area, including Gaston, Catawba and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, recognize the occasion as a full holiday.

Associate Superintendent Edward Hatley, who chairs the calendar committee, said Lincoln students have not gone to school on King’s birthday since it started to be observed nationally in 1986. Hatley said the committee always felt it was treating the day with the proper respect.

The calendar for the 2003-04 school year was approved in April, but the school board can vote to amend it. Otherwise, 2004-05 is the earliest King’s birthday could be made an official holiday.

“We know the calendar is already out for this year, but we want them to know how strongly we feel about it,” Creed said.

The state only allows school systems to have a specific number of holidays. In the event of a change to King’s birthday, Hatley said the calendar committee would likely compensate by making one of the days its teachers have traditionally gotten off an optional workday.

The committee, which consists of teachers, parents and administrators, compiles a proposed calendar a year and a half in advance. Upon final approval from the school board, the calendar is allowed to stand open for 30 days for public comment.

Hatley said no comments were made on the 2003-04 calendar.

When the year began, Lincoln was one of three counties in the state that did not recognize the holiday. On the day King’s birthday was supposed to be observed this year, Creed was disappointed to find a message about National Pie Day on the courtsquare’s bulletin board.

“We were embarrassed about it and decided that we would not sit idly by and do nothing,” Creed said.

The NAACP and the Coalition of Churches of Lincoln County challenged the city council and the county commissioners to change the policy. Creed said they were very cooperative, and the county and Lincolnton will observe King’s birthday in 2003.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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