Martin Luther King, Jr was a Baptist minister and social activist that had a huge impact on the civil rights movement of the 1950’s in the United States. King was assassinated in 1968 and will be remembered for his non-violent protests against segregation and his “I have a Dream [1]” speech.[2]

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed MLK Day into law and 3 years later it was first observed. By the year 2000, all fifty states officially observed the day. Another related holiday back in 1948, National Freedom Day was signed into law by President Truman as a national observance recognizing the outlaw of slavery enacted earlier during 1865 under President Lincoln during the civil war years.