Arkansas lawmakers vote to separate Robert E. Lee, MLK days

Lawmakers in Arkansas on Friday voted to do away with a holiday honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that falls each year on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The measure cleared the state House by a vote of 66-11, sending it to Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R), who is expected to sign it, according to The Associated Press.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls on the third Monday in January each year. But in some southern States, such as Alabama and Mississippi, Robert E. Lee Day is on the books for the same day.

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The measure in Arkansas designates a day in October instead to honor Lee, who led Confederate troops in the Civil War, though the day will be considered not a state holiday but a memorial day, according to the AP.

The celebration of Lee’s birthday on the same day as King’s was viewed as offensive by many, who saw Lee’s support for the slave-owning Confederacy as an attack on the values that the civil rights leader advocated.