We are ready to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s state and federal holiday Monday, Jan. 18, with a day of activities intended to inspire, uplift and encourage people everywhere to continue working toward the ideals of equality preached by the late civil rights leader.

But before we reach the affirming lessons of that day, we must grit our teeth through Lee-Jackson Day, Virginia’s continuing shameful state holiday honoring vanquished traitors of the Civil War.

On Friday, Jan. 15, roughly 104,000 state employees will get a paid day off in honor of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, Confederate generals who found it more honorable to go to war and divide the country than to end slavery.

We, the taxpayers, are paying the salaries of thousands of people as they kick back and enjoy a long weekend, thanks to Virginia’s continuing veneration of evil-doers who sought to keep human beings in bondage.

We believe that should stop.

In calling for the arc of the moral universe to bend toward justice, as Dr. King intoned, we request that Gov. Terry McAuliffe and the enlightened members of the 2016 Virginia General Assembly immediately repeal the disgraceful Lee-Jackson holiday.

We also recommend that the statue of Lee or Jackson be moved from Richmond’s Monument Avenue — at private expense — to either man’s homeplace, both of which are being preserved by special interest groups.

And in their place, the city should erect a fitting tribute to Richmond native, trailblazing businesswoman and equal rights activist Maggie L. Walker.

Forget the tree and the tiny Downtown plaza where the city hopes to shoehorn-in her statue. Let her likeness and her legacy adorn a larger space on Monument Avenue.

She is a true hero. She deserves the honor.