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 immortalized 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. via The Independent
The day is a Federal Holiday and stock market is closed on MLK day to commemorate one of the greatest champions of civil rights in our history. Below are some quotes from the hero as well as an infographic on MLK – check it out!
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
? Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
“I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
? Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”
? Martin Luther King Jr.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
? Martin Luther King Jr., I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
? Martin Luther King Jr.
“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
? Martin Luther King Jr.
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law”
? Martin Luther King Jr.
“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.”
? Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr infographic on the history of his life is below – click to enlarge
