McCain: "I Was Wrong to Oppose King Holiday"
In a speech today at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis (now the National Civil Rights Museum), where Dr. Martin Luther King was killed 40 years ago today, Sen. John McCain said he made a mistake in 1983 when he voted against the bill that designated the third Monday of every January as a federal holiday in honor of King.
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) greets the crowd after speaking at the Lorraine Hotel, the site where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, during an event marking the slain civil rights leader's death in Memphis, Tennessee. King was killed by James Earl Ray 40 years ago today.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
McCain had a long history of opposition to the idea of an MLK holiday. When then-Arizona Governor Evan Mecham rescinded the holiday in 1987, McCain supported that move. But by 2000 he had changed his position. During an appearance on MSNBC's Hardball that year, he talked about his change of heart.
"I believe that Barry Goldwater [McCain's political hero], to start with, regretted his vote on the 1964 Civil Rights Act," he said. "I think that Barry grew, like all of us grow and evolve. In 1983, when I was brand-new in the Congress, I voted against the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King. That was a mistake, OK? And later I had the chance to...help fight for...the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King as a holiday in my state."
In pouring rain today, McCain talked glowingly of King's legacy. He said King's message of equality was as important in places like Iraq and Iran as it was in the United States. When he came to the section of his speech where he admitted making a mistake on the holiday, some in the crowd booed. But many others in the largely African-America crowd shouted out "We forgive you."
"Sometimes the most radical thing is to be confronted with our own standards -- to be asked simply that we live up to the principles we profess," Mccain said. "Even in this most idealistic of nations, we do not always take kindly to being reminded of what more we can do, or how much better we can be, or who else can be included in the promise of America. We can be slow as well to give greatness its due, a mistake I made myself long ago when I voted against a federal holiday in memory of Dr. King. I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona. We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans. But he knew as well that in the long term, confidence in the reasonability and good heart of America is always well placed. And always, that was his method in word and action -- to remind us of who we are and what we believe. His arguments were unanswerable and they were familiar, the case always resting on the writings of the Founders, the teachings of the prophets, and the Word of the Lord."
After his speech, McCain shook hands with people in the crowd for several minutes.
12:30 PM ET | 04- 4-2008 | permalink
