A bill to separate Arkansas' dual celebration of the birthdays of civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was approved by the House Education Committee on Tuesday.
The decision was made in a split voice vote after an hour and a half of testimony. Senate Bill 519 by Sen. David Wallace, R-Leachville, heads to the House for further consideration. It has already cleared his chamber.
Opponents of the bill said it would not properly honor Lee because he would not be celebrated on a state holiday.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson -- a Republican who presented the bill with its House sponsor, Rep. Grant Hodges, R-Rogers -- said the time was right for the split.
When bills to split the days were filed two years ago, "I stayed in my office upstairs, quietly for the bill that gave Dr. King the holiday," the governor said. "I had other priorities in that session, and I did not lift a finger to help that."
This session, the governor has been a vocal supporter of the bill, appearing in the Senate Education Committee to back it earlier this month.
"It is a healing moment for our state," he said. "I think it's a unifying moment in our state."
Minority communities in the state think the split is important and "that makes it important for all of us," the governor said.
Rizelle Aaron, president of the Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP, said he recently saw an old picture of a young white child smiling as black men were hanged in the background.
The child was innocent, he said.
"What was happening to him was not how he came here. It was what was taught to him," Aaron said. "When our children see Dr. Martin Luther King and Lee prominently celebrated on the same day, it brings back those memories."
He said he visited with King's daughter Bernice King last week and they discussed the joint celebration of King and Lee in Arkansas.
"Imagine how she felt," Aaron said.
Senate Majority Leader Jim Hendren, R-Gravette, then implored committee members to consider other viewpoints. Hendren is the governor's nephew.
"The fact is, that these holidays are joined may not be offensive to you. The fact is, you should know that it is offensive to many of your colleagues and your friends, and I think we have a duty and an obligation to put them first," he said.
"I think this bill is overdue in coming. I think that nitpicking about method is petty and looking for an excuse to kill this bill. I think we should all leave here with a purpose that we are not just going to honor and respect each other, but we're going to do a better job of teaching our youth to do the same."
Hendren said he went to an all-white school in Gravette, attended a largely white engineering college and only interacted with black people when he joined the military.
"That's where I began to learn that I didn't know much," he said.
Opponents of the bill said it was not sufficiently respectful of Lee.
The bill would leave the celebration of King on the third Monday in January -- a holiday for state employees and also a federal holiday.
It would move Lee's celebration to the second Saturday in October -- near the day of his death. Lee's day would be commemorated by gubernatorial proclamation. It would not be a holiday for state employees.
"To remove for no other reason than socialist political correctness Robert E. Lee's birthday from its position on the calendar where it was established in 1947 by an act of the Arkansas Legislature of that time would degrade the importance and supreme patriotism of one of the truly great men of the United States and reduce his name almost to insignificance in not only the eyes of our current citizenry but also future generations," said Robert Freeman, a Hot Springs resident who said he wasn't speaking on behalf of an organization.
If the Legislature must move the celebration, he said move it to the celebration of George Washington's birthday in February.
Both men were Virginians, Lee married a descendent of Washington's wife, and Lee fought to preserve the grounds that became Arlington National Cemetery, Freeman said.
Robert Edwards, the commander of the Arkansas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, also spoke against the bill. He said his testimony was personal and not on behalf of the organization.
"Cultural diversity, racial diversity is not just a one-way street. It has to work both directions. Otherwise you get a European roundabout -- you just chase your tail, you're running in circles the whole time," he said. "It takes action and reaction from all involved in order to have cultural sensitivity and diversity."
In Little Rock, Central High School is a national historic landmark, Edwards said.
"We can look back to 1957 and say I'm glad we're not there anymore, but we can't let go of 1865," he said. "For some reason, we refuse to let go."
Some committee members also questioned the bill, arguing that history is complicated.
Rep. Mark Lowery, R-Maumelle, said Union forces removed freed slaves from the reservation that became Arlington National Cemetery.
Rep. Stephen Meeks, R-Greenbrier, said black people owned slaves, too.
"I don't want this to become about black vs. white," he said. "I want this to be about what's best for everybody -- for the state."
Rep. Jana Della Rosa, R-Rogers, had filed House Bill 1995, which would celebrate King on the third Monday in January, but Lee on Washington's birthday in February.
She asked Hutchinson if any compromise was made with the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The governor said he listened to all viewpoints.
In closing for the bill, Hodges said the bill is one way to move forward as a state.
"I think we all want unity," he said. "We all want to get along better, but if the way we avoid division is to keep two holidays together that shouldn't be held on the same day, I don't think that's the solution."
In addition to splitting the joint holiday, SB519 directs the education commissioner to develop materials to emphasize the "historic work of American civil rights leaders, including without limitation Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his pursuit of justice in civil society" and "civilian and military leadership during the [Civil War] period and how the lessons of that era can inform contemporary society."
A Section on 03/15/2017