Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated annually on the third Monday in January; while Dr. King’s birthday was January 15, 1929, it is celebrated this way in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. See our previous article on the holiday for more information on its history. This year, it falls on Monday, January 20.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was among the most well-known leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, with a reputation for holding nonviolent protests against racial injustices such as segregation and police brutality, as well as economic inequality and other social ills. He was also among the key figures of one of the biggest political demonstrations in American history: the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, more commonly known as the March on Washington.
On August 28, 1963, under his leadership and that of several other prominent civil rights figures, an estimated 250,000 people who had traveled from all over the country to Washington D.C. to participate marched from the Washington Monument to the National Mall below the Lincoln Memorial, in protest of racist policies nationwide and in support of civil rights legislation that was currently being considered by the federal government.
At their destination, Dr. King, as the final speaker on the program, delivered his most famous speech, known now as his “I Have a Dream” speech and which can be viewed in its entirety here, in which he called for an end to prejudice against African Americans and racial equality in the United States. Afterwards, Dr. King and the event’s other speakers traveled to the White House to meet with President John F. Kennedy and discuss with him how their goals would best be met.
The overwhelming national attention, particularly press coverage, that the demonstration received played a major part in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin illegal in the United States, eliminating policies of segregation in schools, employment, voting registration processes, and other public facilities and accommodations, as well as federally funded programs and activities.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a federal holiday, so you can expect businesses, schools, banks, and government buildings to be either closed or operating on limited hours.
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