On the third Monday of January, America celebrates the national holiday — Martin Luther King Day. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), dedicated to the life and ideals of this black civil rights activist.
The era of King the leader began in December 1955 with one seemingly unremarkable event. While returning home from work, black seamstress Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. Under King's leadership, the Negro community boycotted Montgomery's transportation for 382 days. In November 1956, the US Supreme Court declared the segregation law in Alabama unconstitutional, and as early as December, blacks and whites shared buses.
This was King's first victory. The following year, 1957, he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Over the course of 11 years, King traveled more than seven million kilometers, giving speeches more than 2,500 times, constantly finding himself in places of protests, actions and the fight against injustice. At the same time, he managed to write five books and a huge number of articles.
While leading a protest in Birmingham, Alabama, King was arrested and detained for nine days, where he wrote a series of his famous essays, «Letters from Birmingham Prison», a manifesto of anti-discrimination fighters arguing for a person's moral right to oppose unjust laws. He was involved in registering black voters in Alabama, co-hosting a peaceful march on Washington that included half a million people, and ended with one of Luther King's most cited speeches «I Have a Dream».
King's role in the nonviolent struggle to pass legislation that eliminated remnants of racial discrimination was recognized with the 1964 Nobel Prize. So at the age of 35 he became the youngest laureate in the history of the Nobel Peace Prize. The world has recognized the enduring value of Martin Luther King's contribution to the struggle for peace.
But on April 4, 1968, he was assassinated, and four days later, Democratic Rep. John Conyers introduced a bill proposing to make King's birthday a national holiday.
But it was not until 15 years after his death, in 1983, that the U.S. Congress constitutionally recognized the importance of his legacy by declaring the third Monday in January a national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King's birthday. The American nation of several states first celebrated it on January 20, 1986, and in all US states the holiday has become national since 2000.
This day is a day off in schools, offices, post offices and banks. All television channels broadcast videos of King's performances from the 1960s. From radio receivers you can hear statements from leaders of the movement for equal civil rights. The previous Sunday, sermons are preached in churches, and memorial services and ceremonies are held on Monday to commemorate King's life of fighting for peace.