Today, the third Monday of January, is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the American Civil Rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon. A Baptist minister, Dr. King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history. An excerpt of this famous speech is as follows; “I have a Dream that my children will live in a world where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character…Let Freedom Ring!"
In 1964, Dr. King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Dr. King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986 and was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000; it is observed on the third Monday of January each year, around the time of Dr. King’s birthday on January 15, 1929.
