Each year, on the third Monday in January, the Department of Defense joins the nation in honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King is remembered as America’s preeminent advocate of nonviolence and a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. While others were fighting for equality by “any means necessary,” he used the power of words and acts of nonviolent resistance. King’s achievements are well documented.
On August 27, 1984, President Reagan established a commission (98 Stat. 1473 ) to assist in the first observance of the Federal legal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., and on January 18, 1986, President Reagan signed Proclamation 5431 (100 Stat. 4396), marking the first observance of his birthday a national holiday.
On August 23, 1994, President Clinton signed the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday and Service Act (108 Stat. 1565), expanding the mission of the holiday as a day of community service, interracial cooperation and youth anti-violence initiatives. In 1999, Title 4, United States Code, (113 Stat. 1285), was amended to add the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to the list of days on which the flag should be displayed.
Here is this year's press release for Martin Luther King, Jr. January 15, 2024.
Below is a sampling of LRC books in support of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. These books are either available for check out from the LRC or can be accessed online as eBooks through our EBSCOhost eBook database subscription (login with your library credentials or use the credentials posted on Blackboard on the LRC information page).
Some of the information on this page was borrowed from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute's (DEOMI) Special Observances human relations toolkit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.