POLL: Have We Lived Up to MLK's Legacy?

On Jan. 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was born. In just a few short decades, the boy from Atlanta would become the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — a renowned civil rights leader whose words and work changed the face of race relations in the U.S.

This Monday, we celebrate the birth of King as a day to promote equality among all people, regardless of race or social class.

Among his best-known accomplishments, King was a chief motivator in the movement to end racial segregation in the United States. At 35, he was the youngest man to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and his beliefs in nonviolent activism reflected the work of Mahatma Gandhi.

Here are a few other facts:

1. King is one of three people to have a federal holiday in his honor, the other two being George Washington and Christopher Columbus. Although the holiday celebrates King’s birthday, which was on Jan. 15, MLK Day is considered a floating holiday, and is always observed on the third Monday of January.

2. It took 15 years for the U.S. government to officially designate a holiday in his honor. The original bill to make King’s birthday a federal holiday was introduced to Congress days after his death, but it didn’t pass until 1983. At the time, the main argument was that King never held public office, and that making a federal holiday based on a private citizen would break tradition, though Christopher Columbus was given the honor in 1934. However, in 1983, Ronald Reagan signed the bill. In 1986, the first Martin Luther King Jr. Day was observed.

3. Some states combine the observance of King’s birthday with other days. States like Arizona and New Hampshire combine MLK Day with Civil Rights Day, which is not recognized as a federal holiday. Others simultaneously observe Human Rights Day on King’s birthday, with the same belief—equality for all. Some states, like Alabama and Arkansas, observe both Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Robert E. Lee’s birthday on the third Monday in January.

4. During the last three years of his life, Dr. King shifted his focus toward economic justice. King began work on a “Poor Peoples Campaign,” which was described by officials at the King Center as "a broad effort to assemble a multiracial coalition of impoverished Americans who would advocate for economic change."

5. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN. James Earl Ray, the accused murderer, was arrested in London two months later. The efforts to make King’s birthday a holiday began almost immediately, but it was another 15 years—and six million petition signatures—before the bill was finally passed.

Authors' note: Information provided by The King Center, timeanddate.com and factmonster.com.