Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial In D.C. website: mlkmemorial.org
The King Center In Atlanta website: thekingcenter.org
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Stanford Research Center: stanford.edu/King
Stevie Wonder - Happy Birthday - 1980
(January 15th, 1929 - April 4th, 1968) Michael Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Better known as Martin, a name he formally adopted, Martin Luther King, Jr. became a Baptist minister, world-renowned civil rights leader, and an advocate of non-violence. His efforts, beginning with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and continuing to 1968, fundamentally changed civil rights for African-Americans and earned him a number of honors and awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, the Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1957.
From Wikipedia.com ~
After King's death in 1968, Rep. John Conyers introduced a bill in Congress to make King's birthday a national holiday, highlighting King's activism on behalf of trade unionists. Unions did most of the promotion for the holiday throughout the 1970s. In 1976, trade unionists helped to elect Jimmy Carter, who endorsed the King Day bill. After that endorsement, union influence in the King holiday campaign declined, and 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 The Nation article as "...the largest petition in favor of an issue in US history."
Opposition to the bill was led by Senator Jesse Helms, who questioned whether King was important enough to receive such an honor. He was also critical of King's opposition to the Vietnam War and accused King of having Communist connections.
President Ronald Reagan was also opposed to the holiday. He relented in his opposition only after Congress passed the King Day Bill with a veto-proof majority (338 to 90 in the House of Representatives and 78 to 22 in the Senate). At the White House Rose Garden on November 2, 1983, Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor King. It was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986.
On January 17, 2000, for the first time, Martin Luther King Day was officially observed in all 50 U.S. states. The day is marked by demonstrations for peace, social justice and racial and class equality, as well as a national day of volunteer community service.
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