Saundra McNair

From the ages of 12 through 15 years old, she had the pleasure and honor of working to help establish a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  As a teenager, she worked at the Martin Luther King, Jr.

National Holiday Commission Office in Washington, DC.  The Mission of the Commission was to oversee the observance of the holiday. The Commission was formed after more than 6 million signatures were gathered on petitions and Bills introduced in the U.S. Congress were passed by both the House and the Senate.  The final bill also established the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission, and Mrs.

Coretta Scott King, Dr. King’s wife, was made a member of the Commission for Life. The Bill was finally signed into law in 1983.  The holiday was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986.

She first worked as a volunteer, helping to gather petition signatures, then later as an employee.  She worked directly for the late Coretta Scott King as her personal assistant.  While working in the Commission office, she met many of the people that she admired and had read about in my history books, such as Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, Walter Fauntroy, and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Through the years, she has served as an attorney and an administrative judge for District of Columbia, Washington DC.