What's open, what's closed?
By Spencer Kent | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Monday, Jan. 15, 2018, is Martin Luther King Day, a federal holiday commemorating the life and achievements of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
The day has also become a time when people in communities throughout the country participate in service events in their neighborhoods.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation designating every third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Day — commonly abbreviated as MLK Day.
Because MLK Day is a national holiday, some institutions and businesses are closed on Monday. Here’s a closer look at what’s open and what’s closed.
HE WAS a Christian minister and activist who led a groundbreaking civil rights movement - and gave African Americans the courage to speak up against injustice.
But Martin Luther King Jr.'s life was tragically cut short, when he was assassinated at age 39. Here we tell you everything you need to know about King, and how his life and work is remembered today.
Getty Images Martin Luther King Jr. was a leading figure in America's civil rights movement
When is Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2018?
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an American federal holiday.
King was born in Atlanta on January 15 - and the holiday falls on the nearest Monday to this date.
Several cities and states began to mark the day in 1971, just three years after his death, and the date became an American federal holiday in 1986.
Hundreds of streets in the United States have been renamed in King's honour, as well as a whole county in Washington State.
Nearly 50 years after his death, King continues to inspire - and President Barack Obama famously asked for his bust to be placed in the Oval Office.
AP Pictured with his wife, Coretta, after leaving jail in 1956. King was found guilty of conspiracy to boycott city buses, but a judge suspended his $500 fine following an appeal
Who was Martin Luther King Jr.?
King was born in 1929 and became a Baptist minister and activist, who led a movement of nonviolent civil disobedience.
He led the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, where people took a stand against racial segregation by refusing to surrender their seats to white people.
The campaign lasted for a year, and was sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks - who refused to give up her seat.
Getty Images King addresses a crowd of demonstrators at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
King organised several nonviolent protests and marches in the following decade.
He helped to organise the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his famous 'I Have a Dream speech' and earned his reputation as one of he greatest public speakers in American history.
More of King's famous quotes include 'injustice is a threat to justice everywhere', and 'our lives begin to end the day we become silent on the things that matter'.
In 1964, King received a Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent fight against racial inequality.
Getty Images King arrives in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965 - at the culmination of the Selma to Montgomery March. Pictured with Ralph Bunche, Coretta Scott King, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and Hosea Williams (left-right)
In the final years of his life, King's focus changed to include a resistance to widespread poverty and the Vietnam War. The latter alienated many of his liberal allies.
In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington - called the Poor People's Campaign.
King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4 - and his death was followed by riots in many US cities.
He was shot by a single bullet fired by James Earl Day at 6pm, as he stood on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
King died an hour later at St Joseph's Hospital, and Ray was sentenced to 99 years in prison - after pleading guilty to avoid receiving the death penalty.
Ray died in prison in 1998, when he was 70 years old.
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How is Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrated?
As Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday, civil servants and most school pupils get the day off. Some other companies also opt to have a paid holiday on MLK Day.
It's a day for religious services, educating the kids and looking back on how race relations have improved.
Over the years, it has evolved into a 'day of service' - when Americans are encouraged to volunteer and help those less fortunate.
The US financial markets will be closed for the day.
Three decades have passed since Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday became a national holiday across America.
But it took decades of campaigning for King’s civil rights legacy to be immortalised as a paid public holiday.
In 1968, Congress was presented with a petition signed by more than 3 million people supporting demands for a holiday.
Initially President Reagan resisted plans to make King’s birthday a public holiday, arguing it would lead to other groups and leaders to seek similar concessions.
Republicans also claimed they were concerned King had an ‘inappropriate' sexual past and links to communism.
In pictures: Martin Luther King Jr's campaign for civil rights
15 show all In pictures: Martin Luther King Jr's campaign for civil rights
1/15 Memories of a March and a Dream: Martin Luther King during the March on Washington, on 28 August 1963 AFP/Getty Images
2/15 Civil rights protestors marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, where the March on Washington climaxed in Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' speech Getty Images
3/15 Martin Luther King Jr. sits on a couch and speaks on the telephone after encountering a white mob protesting against the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama in 1961 Getty Images
4/15 American president John F. Kennedy in the White House with leaders of the civil rights 'March on Washington' (left to right) Whitney Young, Dr Martin Luther King Getty Images
5/15 American civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968) arriving at London Airport. He is in England to be the chief speaker at a public meeting about colour prejudice and to appear on the BBC television programme 'Face To Face' Getty Images
6/15 Martin Luther King Jr
7/15 Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King leading freedom marchers in Montgomery, Alabama in 1965 AP
8/15 Martin Luther King Jr. and his civil rights marchers head for Montgomery, the state's capitol, March 21, 1965, during a five day, 50 mile walk to protest voting laws AP
9/15 An image from 1960 shows Martin Luther King at a meeting Getty Images
10/15 Civil rights Leaders hold hands as they lead a crowd of hundreds of thousands at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington DC Getty Images
11/15 AP
12/15 Over 200,000 people gather around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, where the civil rights March on Washington ended with Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' speech. Getty Images
13/15 Martin Luther King Jr. tells a Miami, Florida news conference, that he will go to Los Angeles to meet with black and white leaders and help create "a community of love" in the violence torn city in August 1965 AP
14/15 Beyond the 'us' and 'them' mentality: Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech in Washington DC in 1963 AP
15/15 Martin Luther King had been imprisoned for taking his campaign of non-violent protest to the streets of Birmingham, Alabama AFP/Getty Images
But faced with considerable pressure, Reagan eventually relinquished his doubts and declared the third Monday of every January Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.
This was the first national holiday in commemoration of a black American in history.
Even so, certain states refused to accept it as a holiday, giving it different names and replacing it with other holidays. It wasn’t until 2000 that South Carolina became the last state to officially accept it as a paid holiday.
Here are some of his quotes that still resonate today:
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed”. Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 1963
“Many white Americans of good will have never connected bigotry with economic exploitation. They have deplored prejudice but tolerated or ignored economic injustice”. Why we can’t wait, 1964
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defence than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom”. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? 1967
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”. Love In Action from Strength to Love, 1963
“So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools”. Beyond Vietnam, 1967
“We may all have come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.” Origin unknown
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” I Have a Dream, 1963
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools”. St Louis, 1964
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 1963
Only three people have a US national holiday observed in their honor: Christopher Columbus, George Washington, and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January each year (near his Jan. 15 birthday) to honor his legacy in battling for civil rights. The fight to create a national holiday was a massive struggle, one that required the same commitment as the movement to guarantee the rights of all Americans: community organizing, long-term determination, and relentless persistence.
King was assassinated in 1968. The legislation designating the federal holiday in his honor wasn’t passed for another 15 years, and the day wasn’t officially commemorated until 1986. And even as King’s work continues to inspire generations of leaders, the fight for universal recognition of the holiday in the US still isn’t over.
A struggle from day one
The call for a national holiday began shortly after he was shot on April 4, 1968—congressman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, introduced legislation just four days later. Congress took no action.
Conyers then was one of the few black members of Congress. (He would serve for more than 50 years, resigning in December following sexual-harassment accusations.) Conyers was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). When the legislation stalled, he persisted, introducing the same bill every year until its passage 15 years later, gathering more co-sponsors along the way.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, a day before he was assassinated there. (AP/Charles Kelly)
The only African-American senator at the time, Massachusetts Republican Edward Brooke, also introduced legislation in 1968 to authorize the president to proclaim Jan. 15 a day of “public commemoration” in honor of King, His bill didn’t go as far as to designate it as a legal holiday.
The congressional caucus played a pivotal role in gathering public support, advocating for the holiday around the country with debates, demonstrations, and petition drives. In 1971, the Southern Christian Leadership Congress (SCLC) presented Congress with a petition in support of the King holiday bearing over three million signatures. Still, Congress took no action.
The birthday song and the big push
By the late 1970s, calls for a national holiday were mounting. The CBC had collected over six million signatures, and president Jimmy Carter endorsed the holiday bill.
Coretta Scott King, King’s widow, launched a national campaign to gather more public support ahead of the 15-year anniversary of his death, delivering multiple speeches to Congress and holding rallies across the country.
Coretta Scott King joins three congressmen, Jim Wright, John Conyers, and Robert Garcia, in Washington in 1979, seeking legislation designating a national MLK holiday. (AP/John Duricka)
Stevie Wonder regularly performed at the rallies, telling an Atlanta crowd in 1979, “If we cannot celebrate a man who died for love, then how can we say we believe in it? It is up to me and you”
Wonder released his new song “Happy Birthday” to celebrate the life of King on his 1980 album Hotter than July. The record’s sleeve featured a photograph of King with a message imploring fans to support the holiday bill: “We still have a long road to travel until we reach the world that was his dream. We in the United States must not forget either his supreme sacrifice or that dream.”
Later that year, Wonder called Coretta Scott King and told her, “I had a dream about this song. And I imagined in this dream I was doing this song. We were marching—with petition signs to make for Dr. King’s birthday to become a national holiday.” She wasn’t optimistic: “I wish you luck. You know, we’re in a time where I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
But the song was a hit, and public support for the holiday reached a fever pitch.
Supporters of Martin Luther King Jr. Day marching in Los Angeles . (AP Photo/Michael Tweed))
At last
In 1983, civil rights leaders gathered in Washington, DC to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the March on Washington and King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, as well as the 15th anniversary of his death.
Civil-rights leaders, including Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King III, in Washington for the ’20th anniversary of the voting-rights march.
Following the anniversary, legislation was once again introduced in Congress, but this time it was different.
When senator Jesse Helms, the South Carolina Republican, tried to add FBI smear material on King (the agency spent years trying to discredit him as a communist and threat to US national security) to the congressional record, his New York Democratic colleague Daniel Patrick Moynihan threw the pages on the floor, calling them”filth” and ”obscenities,” and left in disgust.
The next day, the bill passed easily, and president Ronald Regan signed it into law on Nov. 2, 1983.
The fight continues
The first federal holiday wasn’t celebrated until 1986. In 2000, 32 years after King’s death, South Carolina became the last state in the Union to formally recognize MLK as an official holiday.
The first Martin Luther King Jr. Day was marked with marches, church services, candlelight vigils, and concerts across the country. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Atlanta, King’s hometown, where Coretta Scott King awarded South African bishop Desmond Tutu the King Peace Prize for his work against apartheid.
South African Bishop Desmond M. Tutu receives the Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Prize from Coretta Scott King. (AP Photo)
Not all Americans took part in the celebration. In Buffalo, NY, a sculpture of King was whitewashed. Southern states immediately introduced legislation that combined MLK Day with state holidays to honor Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
Even today, Martin Luther King Jr. Day faces resistance. States like Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas continue to combine Confederate commemorations with those for King; Lexington, Virginia honors Confederate general Stonewall Jackson with a parade the weekend before MLK Day.
The fight for recognition of Martin Luther King Day continues, just as does the struggle for the very same ideals King championed.
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