Biloxi, slammed for marking 'Great Americans Day,' votes for change to MLK Day

After finding itself at the center of a Twitter controversy when it announced city offices would be closed for "Great Americans Day," the City Council in Biloxi, Miss., made amends Monday, declaring every third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Jr. Day and changing a 32-year-old city ordinance.

The council, which usually meets Tuesday, decided on the special meeting — and a 6-0 unanimous vote — after criticism from across the USA, WLOX-TV, Biloxi, reported.

Nowhere in city officials' announcement Friday had they mentioned the federal holiday of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

"Non-emergency municipal offices in Biloxi will be closed on Monday in observance of Great Americans Day," @CityofBiloxi tweeted.

Almost immediately people started slamming the city over what appeared to be a slight to the slain civil-rights leader. The city later deleted its tweet.

The city eventually responded, saying Biloxi does celebrate MLK Day and claiming that the state named "Great Americans Day." That tweet also is gone now.

  @CityofBiloxi The city did not name this holiday In fact, Biloxi touts MLK celebrations in our city. Visit https://t.co/xmExVuHERf

 

— City of Biloxi (@CityofBiloxi) January 14, 2017

But as several media outlets pointed out — including Buzzfeed — a list of Mississippi state holidays does not mention Great Americans Day. Since 2015, the state has set aside the third Monday in January to observe the birthdays of both King and Robert E. Lee, the general of the Confederate army.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's called 'Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.' " Biloxi's mayor, Andrew “FoFo” Gilich, said in a Friday night tweet.

The mayor followed that up with a post on the city's website, calling for City Council to change the name to match the federal holiday when it meets Tuesday. But by Saturday, Gilich said he wanted a special meeting Monday morning to right the wrong as some on social media began saying leaders were racist and calling for a boycott in this city of about 45,000 that is heavily dependent on tourists visiting its eight casinos.

"The name has since been traced back to a City Council on Dec. 23, 1985, to proclaim the third Monday of every January to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as well as other great Americans who have made important contributions to the birth, growth and evolution of this country,” Gilich said in his Friday Web post.

The Monday vote came 15 minutes before the kickoff of the city's Martin Luther King Jr. Parade, the (Biloxi, Miss.) SunHeraldreported.

Biloxi lawyer Sugar Stallings also called on the administration to do more to diversify its hiring, asking for "people who look like us in these leadership positions."

About 1 in 5 Biloxi residents are black, according to U.S. Census data. One of its seven council members is a black man; another is a white woman. Gilich also is white.

A proclamation left on the reception desk at City Hall said the mayor will join the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in designating Jan. 17 as the National Day of Racial Healing, the paper reported. The multi-year observance is meant to engage communities across the USA in racial healing and address inequalities, according to the proclamation.

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