Martin Luther King day became a federal holiday to celebrate and remember the civil rights activist on November 3 of 1983. It’s the third Monday of January every year, right around MLK’s birthday, which is January 15.

MLK is recognized for his many lifetime achievements during the civil rights movement.

King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He had an older sister and a younger brother. In 1948 King followed in his father’s footsteps and became a minister at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. King married Coretta Scott in 1953 and had four children.

He has a major influence  in his community and was chosen to lead the monumental Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956 after the infamous event when Rosa Parks was fined for not giving up her seat.

“We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice,” King said of the boycott.

Not long after the boycott, King and other activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to harness the power of black churches.

In 1959 he took a trip to India and was tremendously inspired by Gandhi’s way of protest. After that trip, King changed his outlook and thus the birth of non-violent protesting in America conceived.  

MLK inspired student led sit-ins at restaurants and non violent marches around the US. In 1960. King, along with 75 students, entered a department store, requesting lunch-counter service. They were denied but refused to leave the counter which led to the arrest of himself and 36 of those students.

King organized the historic 1963 March on Birmingham. The event quickly turned violent when police began spraying fire hoses and turning their dogs on African-American protesters. King and more than 1,000 others were arrested that day. From his jail cell on the margins of a newspaper, King wrote “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” to the people, justifying his protesting actions.

On April 28, 1963 King made his most famous speech, “I Have a Dream” at the March on Washington in Washington, DC. The march was populated with over 200,000 activists and became an historical phenomenon.

King continued being a spokesperson for the Civil Rights Movement and organized other non-violent protests throughout his life. On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated by James Earl Ray. His supporters and community were devastated.  

This holiday celebrates a man who was a true leader in his community. Without King, the fight for African-American rights would have progressed much slower.

“If it wasn’t for his wise words and confident stance, us African-Americans wouldn’t be where we are today,” junior Karina Lee said.

Today, some school counties and businesses give their students/employee’s a day off to respect and honor a great leader.