Today is one of the most important holidays we have.

To me, Martin Luther King Jr. was the most important American of the 20th century. He changed this country. His killing did too. We’ve written about five of King’s most impactful visits to North Carolina.

And every January since 1986, we’ve honored his birthday with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I was born in 1982. For most of my life, celebrating MLK Day has been a given, but we can’t take it for granted.

So today, Cardinal & Pine’s Jessica F. Simmons has created a brief timeline of the effort to make this national holiday come about. It did so over the objections of a lot of powerful people, including longtime North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, who once led a Senate filibuster to block it.

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Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Billy Ball. I’m an NC native and journalist. I tend to lean left on opinion, but I lean no way on facts. Today’s edition includes stories from Jessica F. Simmons. It was edited by Paula Solis.

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