Martin Luther King Day – 16 January

Martin Luther King Day, officially Martin Luther King’s Birthday, sometimes also known as MLK Day is a federal holiday in the United States, celebrated to commemorate the birthday of Pastor Martin Luther. King Jr., It takes place on the third Monday of every year. However, in reality, Pastor King’s birthday is January 15, 1929. Martin Luther King Day is similar to other holidays designated under the Equal Mondays Act. The earliest date for this Martin Luther King day is January 15 and the latest is January 21.

Martin Luther King Day and who is he?

King was the principal spokesman for nonviolent activism within the Civil Rights Movement to oppose racial segregation in state and federal laws. Not long after his assassination in 1968, there was a campaign to establish a holiday in his honor. President Ronald Reagan signed a decree to inaugurate the holiday in 1983, and the commemoration began three years later. Initially, some states still resisted the holiday, using some alternate names or combining it with several other holidays. It was not until 2000 that it was officially celebrated in all 50 states.

Martin Luther King – A Dream Still Green

On January 21, 2023, the United States celebrates Pastor Martin Luther King day – the leader of the nonviolent civil rights movement, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and the brick that laid the foundation for racial equality in the US.

Martin Luther King gave his historic “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington in 1963

Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929, into a family with a tradition of pastoring a Protestant church in Atlanta.

In 1954, he became a Baptist pastor of Dexter Avenue Evangelical Church in Montgomery, Alabama. A year later, he obtained a doctorate in theology. He married Coretta Scott in Boston and in turn welcomed four family members.

Pastor Martin Luther King goes down in history with many outstanding achievements. The most famous of which is the “I have a dream” speech delivered in Washington on August 28, 1963.

Martin Luther King’s historic speech helped pressure the US Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, making discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or sex illegal in the U.S.

While serving as a pastor in Montgomery, Martin Luther King led the bus boycott movement after an African-American woman named Rosa Park was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus as required by law. Jim Crow law, which allows discrimination against African Americans.

During nearly a year of the movement, Martin Luther King was imprisoned and released only when the U.S. Supreme Court found the state’s bus system segregation unconstitutional.

This event was also the event that laid the foundation for his later anti-racism activities.

The main policy that Martin Luther King applied in the struggle movements was non-violence, following the example of Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Between 1957 and 1968, he traveled more, giving thousands of lectures, and publishing numerous articles and five books.

After many significant impacts that bring to society, in 1964, Martin Luther King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, thereby indirectly affirming that the strategy of nonviolent protest he pursued was human. The best way to peace.

One of Martin Luther King’s other major contributions was the abolition of the Jim Crow segregation laws. He led a campaign to boycott local businesses in Birmingham to pressure them to end apartheid.

The campaign then turned into sit-ins and prolonged marches, where violence has been recorded. However, success smiled at Martin Luther King when, under great pressure, public businesses and restaurants opened their doors to serve African-American customers.

Geniuses often lose their lives, on the evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated by gun while standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. During this time, he was leading a march in support of the black sanitation workers union in Memphis.

Martin Luther King did not survive and died at just 39 years old.

The death of Martin Luther King led to a series of riots across the United States. On April 7, 1968, then-US President Lyndon Johnson declared national mourning for him. Martin Luther King’s funeral in Atlanta drew hundreds of thousands of people.

Although his life lasted only 39 years, pastor Martin Luther King was able to leave posterity with many precious values on civil rights.

Even after, the United States still has injustices, but the United States since Martin Luther King is no longer the America of before, but an America towards civil rights, freedom, and equality.

You can read more at >> America Celebrates Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Day

Conclusion

Thanks to the grandiose dedication of martin Luther king, his name was used to name thousands of roads across the United States and future generations will forever remember the image of a hero in the history of human development. Hopefully, this article of Mazeshirt will answer your questions about martin Luther king day as well as related information. Thank you.