I'd never had a white person talk to me like that,' Warren Stewart Sr. says, recalling the late Gov. Evan Mecham and the Arizona battle over MLK Day.

Arizona was not the last state to create an ... the holdouts because of the resistance of controversial former Gov. Evan Mecham. On Jan. 12, 1987, Mecham rescinded a 1986 executive order by ...

Arizona was one of the last states to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday and the only state that required a public vote to do so. In 1987, Gov. Evan Mecham fulfilled a promise to ...

I'd never had a white person talk to me like that' The King holiday's approval in Arizona followed a chapter in state history that included racist comments by former Gov. Evan Mecham, who opposed ...

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He chose that location in part to honor President Abraham Lincoln as “a great ...

Georgia's recognition in 1984 actually made it one of the first handful of states to adopt an MLK Day, and Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham revoked recognition in 1987 that had been established by his ...

Most of the foot-dragging came from the South — except for Arizona. Then in 1987, Gov. Evan Mecham rescinded his predecessor's executive order enacting a state holiday in Arizona. “He said ...