Today is the day we celebrate the Reverend Martin Luther King’s birthday. As you all probably know Dr. King was assassinated in 1968.  During his lifetime, Dr. King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. 

     I did a little research on the evolution of the holiday.  Almost immediately after Dr.  King’s death, there were calls for a national holiday in his honor. Beginning in 1970, several states and cities made his birthday, January 15, a holiday. Although legislation for a federal holiday was introduced in Congress as early as 1968, there was sufficient opposition, to continually block its passage. In 1983 federal legislation making the third Monday in January a federal holiday finally was passed.  Interestingly, it was Ronald Reagan who signed the holiday into law, after he initially opposed it. The holiday was first celebrated on the federal level in 1986 and was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.

     Remarkably, the holiday is observed in other countries around the world. In several cities in Canada, Israel, Japan and the Netherlands Dr. King’s birthday is celebrated and honored. 

       I am not working today and am spending the day with my daughter. She is a school social worker and spent last week discussing Dr. King and his legacy with her students. I asked her to share the lesson with me when we’re together to honor Dr. King.

     What are you doing today?