Martin Luther King Day

by Cindi Sutter, Founder & Editor Spirited Table®

Martin Luther King Jr. Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.,[1] and sometimes referred to as MLK Day) is a federal holiday in the United States marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year. Born in 1929, King's actual birthday is January 15 (which in 1929 fell on a Tuesday). The holiday is similar to holidays set under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The earliest Monday for this holiday is January 15 and the latest is January 21.

King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. The campaign for a federal holiday in King's honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed three years later. 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.

The idea of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday was promoted by labor unions in contract negotiations.[2] After King's death, U.S. RepresentativeJohn Conyers[3] (a Democrat from Michigan) and U.S. Senator Edward Brooke (a Republican from Massachusetts) 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.[4] 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).[4] Only two other figures have national holidays in the U.S. honoring them: George Washington and Christopher Columbus.

This article is part of a series about:

Martin Luther King Jr.

• Biography

• Sermons and speeches

Campaigns

• Montgomery bus boycott

• Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom

• Youth March for Integrated Schools

• Albany Movement

• Birmingham campaign

• Walk to Freedom

• March on Washington
  for Jobs and Freedom

• St. Augustine movement

• Selma to Montgomery marches

• Chicago Open Housing Movement

• March Against Fear

• Memphis sanitation strike

• Poor People's Campaign

Death and memorial

• Assassination

• Funeral

• American federal holiday

  • passage

• National memorial

• National Historical Park

Soon after, 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".[2]