Back to the bad old days

United we stand, divided we fall. Old-timers can almost hear the strains of an anthem of the civil-rights movement still resounding as it becomes newly relevant in this different but distinctly familiar time:

We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome some day. Here in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day . . . .

But for now Arkansas has a governor who proposes to divide rather than unite us. Shades of the nigh-eternal governor of Arkansas, the peerless O. E. Faubus, for the state seems to have found another governor who seems to think visitors to its Capitol are told to choose between honoring a black hero or a white one.

The governor says that the state’s concurrent holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King and General Robert E. Lee gives the impression that the visitor “can take one or [the] other.” But not both.

Now a couple of legislators—Dave Wallace of Leachville and Grant Hodges of Rogers—not only seem to misunderstand the problem but seek to extend it with a bill that makes

MLK Day, celebrated on the third Monday of January, a stand-alone state holiday. It offers the governor the privilege of proclaiming the second Saturday in October as Robert E. Lee Day, a state memorial day. “Some said they would not [sponsor the bill],” the governor commented, “because it’s a controversial piece [of legislation].” But for Messrs. Wallace and Hodges it’s never too late to do the wrong thing.

Our governor praised both legislators for trying to re-segregate the holiday. He’s consulted with leaders of the Legislative Black Caucus, too, in order to get its advice and consent. The chairwoman of that caucus, state Representative Vivian Flowers of Pine Bluff, says she hasn’t found any “general opposition” to the idea of observing separate holidays. But the voter won’t be allowed to go with both in this new-old regime. She adds that her caucus is still studying the exact wording of the proposal. “We’re just trying to get it nailed down,” she says. Like the