He left this earth in 1968. His birthday became a national federal holiday in 1986. 15 years of effort went into creating nationwide recognition on this day. Today especially may we always take a moment to reflect on Dr. King and his familys gift to us all... Congressman John Conyers, Democrat from Michigan, first introduced legislation for a commemorative holiday four days after King was assassinated in 1968. After the bill became stalled, petitions endorsing the holiday containing six million names were submitted to Congress. Conyers and Rep. Shirley Chisholm, Democrat of New York, resubmitted King holiday legislation each subsequent legislative session. Public pressure for the holiday mounted during the 1982 and 1983 civil rights marches in Washington. Congress passed the holiday legislation in 1983, which was then signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. In 1986 the federal MLK holiday went into effect... 2000: Utah becomes the last state to recognize MLK Day by name, renaming its Human Rights Day state holiday. South Carolina becomes the last state to make MLK Day a paid holiday for all state employees. Read more: infoplease/spot/mlkhistory1.html Video Tribute: https://youtube/watch?v=anWx36QPmco
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 22:30:00 +0000
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