Dear Fellow Republicans,

We join everyone on this national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  

In 1959, Dr. King spoke to Hawai'i’s first legislative session after Statehood and became friends with Rev. Abraham Akaka of Kawaiaha'o church.  

‘The Aloha State’ motto coined by Rev. Akaka in what was known as the “Statehood Sermon” and Dr. King’s early familiarity with Hawai'i’s unique culture of racial harmony, served to encourage him in the struggle for civil rights.

Hawai'i’s Republican Senator Hiram Fong, the nation’s first Asian-American Senator, and 6 others, in 1963 introduced the Civil Rights Act, authored by Senate Majority Leader, Illinois Republican Everett Dirksen. 

Dr. King returned to Hawai'i in 1964 just as national Republicans were about to defeat the Democrats’ endless filibustering and pass Senator Fong and Senator Dirksen’s Act.  Dr. King spoke to over 10,000 at Andrews Amphitheater as part of the University of Hawaii’s Civil Rights Week activities.  He advocated “non-violent action,” a “calm and peaceful force.” 

Then, on his third and final march from Selma to Montgomery, Dr. King and other leaders wore flower leis sewn by kupuna in Rev. Abraham Akaka’s Kawaiaha'o Church, hand-delivered, with the words; “Dear Brother Martin Luther King, as you bring good news to the meek, bind up those that are bruised, release the captives, our prayer and aloha reach to enfold you. History will honor this hour because his chosen servant was faithful, and a great nation responded to that faithfulness. Aloha. A.A..”

Let us all honor his legacy and truly focus on ‘content of character,’ not color of skin, just as King Kamehameha III’s preamble to the 1840 Hawaii Constitution says “God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the earth..."

Aloha, 

Lynn Finnegan
Chair
Hawaii Republican Party