On January 20, 2025, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday will mark the 30th anniversary as a National Day of Service. This day was established to honor the life and legacy of Dr. King, and to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities.
Americans celebrated the first official Martin Luther King Day, which is the only federal holiday commemorating an African American, on Monday, January 20, 1986. In 1994, Congress designated the holiday as a National Day of Service and marking the third Monday in January every year as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service - a "Day On, Not a Day Off."
King was chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial discrimination in federal and state law and civil society.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (01/15/1929 - 04/04/1968)
• Martin Luther King, Jr. was born Michael King, Jr.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. married Coretta Scott on June 18, 1953.
• He and his wife were parents to four children: Yolanda, MLK, III, Dexter, and Bernice.
• President Ronald Reagan signed the Martin Luther King Day holiday into law in 1983, and it was observed three (3) years later.
• Over 700 streets in the United States are named after Martin Luther King, Jr., one in almost every major city.
• In 1957, then 28-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the commencement speech to graduates at Kentucky State University in Frankfort.
• Martin Luther King, Jr.’s most influential trip to Kentucky was in March 1964 when he led the March on Frankfort. He was the featured speaker where an estimated 10,000 people gathered in a peaceful protest for civil rights.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. visited Louisville several times while his brother, A.D. King, was pastor of Zion Baptist church in the 1960s.
