About Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls on the third Monday of January in the United States and honours the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., born 15 January 1929 and assassinated 4 April 1968. King led the nonviolent struggle that ended legal segregation in the American South: the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56, the 1963 March on Washington with the I Have a Dream speech, the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting-rights march. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at age 35. The campaign to make his birthday a federal holiday began within days of his death; Stevie Wonder's 1980 song Happy Birthday became its anthem. President Reagan signed the law in 1983, and the first observance was in 1986. All fifty states recognised it by 2000.
MLK Day is officially designated as a national day of service — the only federal holiday with that mission — and many Americans spend at least part of it volunteering: cleaning parks, sorting at food banks, mentoring, painting schools. Ceremonies are held at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta (his birthplace and the site of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he preached) and at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington. Schools across the country teach his life and read or watch the I Have a Dream speech. Many cities hold marches and parades. Federal offices, banks and the stock market are closed. The Monday placement creates a three-day weekend that for many launches the new year's civic and educational calendar.