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"I have a dream...
I have a dream that one day little black boys and black girls will be able to
join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers...
I have a dream today."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is an American holiday. It marks the birthdate of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., observed on the third Monday of January each year, around the time of King's birthday, January 15. It is one of three United States federal holidays to commemorate an individual person.
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The official name of this holiday is: Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Prize for peace. He was the chief spokesman
of the nonviolent civil rights movement, which successfully protested racial
discrimination in federal and state law. He was assassinated in 1968. The campaign
for a federal holiday in Martin Luther King's honor began soon after his assassination.
Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed
in 1986. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving
it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. It was officially
observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.
This day was founded as a holiday promoted
by labor unions in contract negotiations. After King's death, United States
Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) introduced a bill in Congress to make
King's birthday a national holiday. The bill first came to a vote in the U.S.
House of Representatives in 1979. However, it fell five votes short of the number
needed for passage. Two of the main arguments mentioned by opponents were that
a paid holiday for federal employees would be too expensive, and that a holiday
to honor a private citizen would be contrary to longstanding tradition (King
had never held public office).
Later, The King Center turned to support
from the corporate community and the general public. The success of this strategy
was cemented when musician Stevie Wonder released the single "Happy Birthday"
to popularize the campaign in 1980 and hosted the Rally for Peace Press Conference
in 1981. Six million signatures were collected for a petition to Congress to
pass the law, termed by a 2006 article in The Nation as "the largest petition
in favor of an issue in U.S. history."
At the White House Rose Garden on November
2, 1983, United States President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal
holiday to honor King. It was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986.
The bill established the Martin Luther
King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission to oversee observance of the holiday, and
Coretta Scott King was made a member of this commission for life by United States
President George H. W. Bush in May, 1989.
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