Theme: Remember! Celebrate! Act! A Day On, Not A Day Off!
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).
eBooks available through EBSCOhost database
Breaking White supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black social gospel by ISBN: 9780300205619Publication Date: 2018-01-09
The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights activism in the North by ISBN: 9780813166506Publication Date: 2016-04-22
Dangerous friendship: Stanley Levison, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Kennedy brothers by ISBN: 9781611861310Publication Date: 2014-04-01
Letters to Martin: Meditations on democracy in Black America by ISBN: 9781641606035Publication Date: 2022-01-11
Martin Luther King Jr. , heroism, and African American literature by ISBN: 9780817318444Publication Date: 2014-11-15
Origins of the dream: Hughes's poetry and King's rhetoric by ISBN: 9780813060446Publication Date: 2015-02-28
The seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. comes of age by ISBN: 9780915864126Publication Date: 2018-04-01
Books available in the LRC for checkout
The autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Call Number: E185.97 .K5 A52 1998ISBN: 9780446524124Publication Date: 1998-11-01
Let the trumpet sound: The life of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Call Number: E185.97 .K5 O18 1982ISBN: 0060149930Publication Date: 1982-08-01
Martin Luther King, Jr. , on leadership: Inspiration & wisdom for challenging times by Call Number: E185.97 .K5 P46 1999ISBN: 0446523674Publication Date: 1999-01-01
Partners to history: Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and the civil rights movement by Call Number: E185.61 .A165 2003ISBN: 0609609149Publication Date: 2003-10-14
The plot to kill King: The truth behind the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Call Number: E185.97 .K5 P43 2016ISBN: 9781510702172Publication Date: 2016-06-21
The promise and the dream: The untold story of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy by Call Number: E185.97 .K5 M37 2018ISBN: 9781948122269Publication Date: 2018-04-03
The words of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Call Number: E185.97 .K5 A25 1983ISBN: 9781557044839Publication Date: 2001-10-19
Footnotes
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.