Sen. John McCain, who once opposed a national holiday in memory of Martin Luther King Jr., said today in Memphis that he had been “wrong.” McCain is pictured here greeting a crowd at the Lorraine Hotel, the site where King was killed. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
by Jill Zuckman
Saying “we are still left with a feeling of loss,” Sen. John McCain paid tribute today to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on the 40th anniversary of King’s death.
Most notably, McCain acknowledged that he was wrong to oppose creating a federal holiday in honor of the slain civil rights leader.
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“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,” McCain said. “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.”
McCain has said that he knew little of King and the civil rights struggle because he was a prisoner of war in Hanoi and received only sporadic news during his five and a half years’ confinement. But his captors told him and his fellow POW’s when King was assassinated.
“In our circumstances at the time, good news from America was hard to come by. But the bad news was a different matter, and each new report of violence, rioting, and other tribulations in America was delivered without delay,” he said. “The enemy had correctly calculated that the news from Memphis would deeply wound morale, and leave us worried and afraid for our country. Doubtless it boosted our captors’ morale, confirming their belief that America was a lost cause, and that the future belonged to them.”
In recent years, McCain has introduced his children to Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), an icon of the civil rights movement, saying he wanted them to get to know Lewis and to learn about his role protesting for equal rights for all Americans.
He has also pledged to campaign in all 50 states, in inner cities that traditionally vote Democratic, and in impoverished rural areas. And McCain has said he will ask for the votes of African Americans, as well as Latinos.
Of King, McCain said, “He only seems a bigger man from far away. The quality of his character is only more apparent. His good name will be honored for as long as the creed of America is honored. His message will be heard and understood for as long as the message of the gospels is heard and understood.”
McCain also tied today’s struggles for freedom and independence around the world to King’s work in the United States.
“For his marches in Birmingham, Montgomery, and elsewhere, for his sit-ins and his sermons, he was called an agitator, a trouble-maker, a malcontent, and a disturber of the peace,” McCain said. “These are often the terms applied to men and women of conscience who will not endure cruelty, nor abide injustice. We hear them to this day — in Darfur, Zimbabwe, Burma, Tibet, Iran and other lands — directed at every brave soul who dares to disturb the peace of tyrants.”
Despite McCain’s visit to Memphis and his admission that he was wrong to oppose a national holiday in honor of King, the Democratic National Committee accused him of being disingenuous and trying to reinvent his record.
“It’s frankly disingenuous for John mcCain to try and reinvent himself for the general election by distorting his record of opposing a holiday honoring Dr. King,” said Karen Finney, the DNC communications director. “John McCain should be honest about his full record of opposing the federal holiday, opposing a state holiday four years later, using divisive language to defend himself and voting to cut off funding for the commission working to promote the King holiday as recently as 1994.”
McCain, in fact, voted for final passage of legislation that would authorize $2 million for the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission, though he had also supported trying to use private funds. The amendment calling for private funding of the commission failed, and McCain supported providing federal funds.
“It’s disturbing and unfortunate that on a day where we are celebrating Dr. King’s legacy, the DNC would use his name to try to smear John McCain,” said Brian Rogers, a McCain spokesman.
In Memphis, where McCain acknowledged he was wrong to initially oppose the King holiday, people in the audience called out “We forgive you, we forgive you.”