Political Quotes

“When it was created in 1984, the King Commission established a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, able to solicit funds in the private sector. It was competing against already established organizations, such as the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta--the Center. Then, in the inaugural observance of the national holiday, there was a great deal of excitement and anticipation as to what this holiday might be and what could be done with special funds. Senator Dole, then the majority leader of the U.S. Senate, and Edward Jefferson, president of the DuPont Co., helped to raise private funds for the observance of that first King Federal holiday on January 20, 1986. The aim was to raise at least $2 million. The net result was that $300,000 was raised under favorable conditions, the most favorable conditions the Commission has experienced, because it was the beginning of the holiday, the birth of the holiday. The enthusiasm and interest in the first King holiday observance carried over. But in recent years it has declined, and from 1990, it has never exceeded $100,000 a year. The lowest level of contributions came in 1993 when the Commission raised $34,000.”