Martin Luther King Jr. Day

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"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a United States holiday marking the birth date of the Reverend 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 four United States federal holidays to commemorate an individual person.

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King 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.

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The campaign for a federal holiday in King's honor began soon after his assassination. Ronald Regan 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 2006.

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Opposition to Honoring Dr King
America had only honored two individuals with national holidays - George Washington and Christopher Columbus and many felt there were more worthy people. A senator from Georgia even denounced Dr. King as a communist.

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Others feared the King Holiday was meant as a way to make up to African-Americans for slavery. Senator Bob Dole pointed out to those critics '"I suggest they hurry back to their pocket calculators and estimate the cost of 300 years of slavery, followed by a century or more of economic, political and social exclusion and discrimination".

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Senator Jesse Helms (Rep-North Carolina) led the opposition to the bill and questioned whether MKL was important enough to receive such an honor.
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The King Center and the Song "Happy Birthday" from Stevie Wonder

While congress couldn’t decide, many African-Americans celebrated Dr King’s birthday themselves anyway. The King Center turned to support from the general public. Stevie Wonder wrote and released the single "Happy Birthday" to popularize the campaign in 1980. 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.

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20 January 2009 - Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama
This year Martin Luther King Day will set the scene for the historic presidential inauguration on 20 January 2009.

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Maybe the realization of Dr King's dream is beginning.