Volume 1, Issue 4

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Jessica Ang

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a United States holiday that commemorates the birthday of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; observed onJanuary 15. It is the only federal holiday honoring an African American and one of four honoring an individual. Martin Luther King Jr. was a strong worker for civil rights for the members of his race and he was also a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which was the leading organization of his kind. He was the leader of the first great African American nonviolent demonstration, which was the boycotting of buses until African Americans and whites rode the buses as equals. During the days of the boycotts, Dr. King was arrested, his house was bombed, and he suffered personal abuse, but he also emerged as first rank African American leader. He was awarded five honorary degrees; named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963, and he not only became the symbolic leader of American blacks, but a world figure. At the age of thirty five, Dr. King was the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. When he was told this, he announced that he was giving the prize money of $54,123 to the civil rights movement. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of the city in Memphis, Tennessee, when he was assassinated standing on the balcony of his motel room.

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