Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968
Martin Luther King Day is a federal holiday held on the third Monday of January. It celebrates the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr., an influential American civil rights leader. He is most well-known for his campaigns to end racial segregation on public transport and for racial equality in the United States.
"Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope." From the "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington, DC on August 28, 1963.
"We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." From a speech at the Washington National Cathedral, March 31, 1968.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." Strength to Love, 1963.
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"Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in." March for Integrated Schools, April 18, 1959.
"I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against it not in anger but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and above all with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as a moral example of the world." Anti-War Conference, Los Angeles, California, February 26, 1967.
"If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective." Christmas sermon, Atlanta, Georgia, 1967.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
Letter from Birmingham, Alabama jail, April 16, 1963.
"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits."
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 1964
"It is not enough to say 'We must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but the positive affirmation of peace."
Anti-War Conference, Los Angeles, California, February 25, 1967.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Strength to Love, 1963.
"Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies." New York City, April 4, 1967.
"We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs 'down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.' (from the Book of Amos)" Montgomery, Alabama, December 5, 1955.
"We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience." Montgomery, Alabama, March 25, 1965.
THESE QUOTES ARE INSCRIBED ON THE
MONUMENT:
Proclamation 5927 -- Martin Luther King, Jr
December 23, 1988
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
During January, America celebrates a national holiday in honor of the birthday of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. We do so in memory of a man who asked to be recalled by his countrymen not for any earthly honors he had won but as ``a drum major for justice.'' That title he deemed greater than any other because earning it would mean that he had not lived his life in vain.
Today, America does remember Dr. King as a drum major for justice, as a giant whose life was far from being in vain. In a sermon on the eve of his assassination, he surely described his own mission when he asked, ``Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and say, `Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.''' Martin Luther King, Jr., did exactly that. He gave eloquent voice and powerful leadership to the long-cherished hopes of millions as he headed a crusade to end bigotry, segregation, and discrimination in our land; to foster equal opportunity; and to make universal America's promise of liberty and justice for all.
Dr. King's work is not done, but neither is his witness stilled. He urged again and again that all of us come to love and befriend one another, to live in brotherhood and reconciliation, to nourish each and every individual's dignity and self-respect. We must reaffirm in every generation the lessons of justice and charity that Dr. King taught with his unflinching determination, his complete confidence in the redeeming power of love, and his utter willingness to suffer, to sacrifice, and to serve. We must, and we can, all be drum majors for justice. That is our duty and our glory as Americans. On Martin Luther King, Jr., Day and every day let us unite in prayer and promise to be true to the American Dream he loved and renewed.
By Public Law 98 - 144, the third Monday in January of each year has been designated as a public holiday in honor of the "Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.''
Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Monday, January 16, 1989, as Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-third day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirteenth.
Ronald Reagan
[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:36 a.m., December 27, 1988]
SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MLK
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King’s birth name was Michael.
On January 15, 1929, Michael King, Jr., was born. His father, a powerful pastor in Atlanta, traveled to Germany in 1934 and was inspired by what he learned about the the great 16th-century Protestant reformer, Martin Luther. In fact, his father was so moved that he changed his name, and his son’s, to Martin Luther King when he returned home.
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King was 15 when he started college.
King did so well in high school that he skipped two grades (9th and 12th) before enrolling at Morehouse College in 1944 at the age of 15. Both his father and grandfather had gone to Morehouse, the only college in the world that only admits African-American men. It was there that he first learned about Gandhi and nonviolent civil disobedience.
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MLK survived an earlier assassination attempt.
“Are you Martin Luther King?” That was question that Izola Ware Curry asked Dr. King on September 20, 1958, at a book signing in Harlem. When he said yes, she plunged a seven-inch letter opener into his chest. The tip of the blade barely missed puncturing his aorta. The surgeons who saved his life later told him that if he had so much as sneezed, it would have killed him.
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He was imprisoned 29 times.
King was jailed nearly 30 times, most often for acts of civil disobedience, as when he spent 11 days in a Birmingham, Alabama, jail after being arrested for leading a demonstration (he wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” while in solitary confinement). But sometimes the charges were completely trumped up, like the time he was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for going 30 in a 25 mph zone.
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King started the Poor People’s Campaign.
Revered for his leadership in the civil-rights movement, Dr. King nonetheless came to see toward the end of his life that his work there was simply a first step in bringing about a “new era of human rights.” In 1967 he announced the launch of the Poor People’s Campaign, an effort to unite the poor of every race and creed. It was the last campaign he would ever lead.
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Was a…. Trekkie!
When meeting the Chadwick Boseman of his time, Nichelle Nichols, the groundbreaking African American actress who portrayed Lt. Uhura on Star Trek, Dr. King said, “I am your best, greatest fan, and my family are your greatest fans. As a matter of fact, this is the only show that my wife, Coretta, and I will allow our little children to watch, to stay up late to watch because it’s past their bedtime.”
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The FBI monitored him for years.
The FBI started tracking Dr. King in 1955. The FBI director at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, was obsessed with King and even began tapping his phones and bugging his offices. This fanatical devotion to somehow discredit King only intensified when he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. Afterward, an FBI memo called King the "most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country."
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MLK was a pool shark.
American icon. Civil rights hero. Preacher. Scholar. Organizer. World-renowned leader. Celebrated orator. Writer. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Pool shark? Yup. Dr. King loved playing pool and apparently was pretty darn good at it too.
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He’s one of two Americans to have his birthday celebrated as a national holiday.
The other American? George Washington. President Ronald Reagan signed a bill that created a federal holiday to honor Dr. King in 1983 (the intense fight to achieve that milestone played out over many years). Martin Luther King, Jr., Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January, close to his January 15 birthday.
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A new Poor People’s Campaign was launched in 2017.
Fifty years to the day that Dr. King announced the start of his Poor People’s Campaign, Rev. William Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis launched a new campaign to finish the work that he started. The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival seeks to end systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental degradation, and rampant militarism.
In Memphis, the night before his death, Dr. King said, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life—longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now… I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”
We’re not there yet. But if you stand with us and join the Poor People’s Campaign, together we can complete the march toward a fair, just, and equitable America.