Summary

The creation of a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. is at the heart of how the civil rights movement became a national narrative. It demonstrates a shift from King's deep unpopularity at the time of his death to his instillation as a national icon. The language around the creation of the holiday also emphasized the idea that these racial injustices were in the past and had now been corrected. The ways in which Black History month would come to be celebrated further compounded this narrative as well as the increasing ways in which memorialization of the movement became national events. Racism would be framed as personal hate rather than systemic injustices perpetuated by political and legal institutions.

The honors that were given to Rosa Parks after her death...