Biloxi, Mississippi, is facing outrage after sending a tweet that referenced Monday, Jan. 16, as Great Americans Day instead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.However, a city official says that they are being unfairly targeted for an outdated city ordinance established years ago that legally amended the name of the holiday.The tweet in question was posted Friday evening to notify the community that non-emergency city offices would be closed for the holiday.Non-emergency municipal offices in Biloxi will be closed on Monday in observance of Great Americans Day. City of Biloxi (@CityofBiloxi) January 13, 2017 Within hours, people began calling the city out for not using the federal name for the holiday, which honors the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who led the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 60s.@CityofBiloxi pic.twitter.com/fSgHVK61Dj Patrick Schmidt (@PatrickASchmidt) January 14, 2017 .@CityofBiloxi pic.twitter.com/tPwPHuTeGd Vann R. Newkirk II (@fivefifths) January 14, 2017 @CityofBiloxi Fixed it for you guys. pic.twitter.com/14JL4zxfcv Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) January 14, 2017 when u see what @CityofBiloxi did for the day acknowledging you pic.twitter.com/C6PufnXECK Large ''''of Anarchy (@JumpinJackFlask) January 14, 2017 The city quickly responded to the backlash on Facebook, initially claiming that it was using the holiday name that was officially designated by the state. (This claim could not be verified by The Huffington Post.) They also pointed out that the city celebrates MLK Day every year with city-sponsored events and parades that honor King, all of which are clearlypromoted on their website and social media pages.Here in Biloxi, we embrace cultural diversity, Vincent Creel, the citys public affairs manager,told The Huffington Post on Friday. In fact, in the same Facebook page and Twitter account that everybodys talking about, were touting our MLK Day celebration.Biloxi Mayor Andrew FoFo Gilich also defended the city, saying that he is not opposed to the federal holidays original name.While some are wrapped up in a holiday we did not name, please consider the big news coming out of Biloxi today: https://t.co/TIMgJPi1jt City of Biloxi (@CityofBiloxi) January 14, 2017 From Mayor Andrew "FoFo" Gilich: "As far as I'm concerned, it's called 'Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.'" City of Biloxi (@CityofBiloxi) January 14, 2017 Creel attempted to distance Biloxi from some of Mississippis racial tension, pointing out that, every year,the state of Mississippi legally designates the third Monday in Januarya state holiday that honors the birthdays of both King and Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general.For whatever reason, the state couldnt bring itself to just say Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Creel said of the states inclusion of Lee in the holiday. Somewhere along the lines, that evolved into Great Americans Day, unfortunately. And yes, I did say unfortunately.After some research on Friday evening, Creel discovered some unsettling news about his city: Biloxis own City Council was actually involved in erasing Kings name from the state holiday.Two years after the U.S. government designated MLK Day a federal holiday in 1983, the city of Biloxi legally renamed the state holiday toGreat Americans Day, as revealed in the recorded minutes of a 1985 City Council meetingposted on the citys website.But the backlash may do some good for the city.Gilich issued a news release late Fridayrequesting that the City Council change the name of the holiday back to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.That is the appropriate step to take for the holiday to have the same name as the federal holiday, Gilich said in the news release. The citys longstanding support of our annual MLK celebrations speaks volumes about our support for this holiday.When asked why the citys social media manager did not just use the holidays formal name in the first place, Creel said they were just following their code of ordinances and they were not trying to belittle the federal holiday.It was an innocuous little thing letting people know that city offices will be closed on Monday, Creel told HuffPost. Now, he added, we are being unfairly characterized. This is going viral in a way thats unfair.Still, some Biloxi residents were not pleased with the citys tweet.It makes the entire state look bad, one person wrote on the citys Facebook page in response to the mayors news release. Others called for the original posts to be deleted.Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama are the only states that celebrate Lees birthdayalong with Kings. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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