Government offices will be closed on Monday, Jan. 20,
in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The federal holiday is designated as a national day of
service to encourage all Americans to volunteer and
improve their communities, according to the National
Museum of African American History and Culture.

President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill
into law on Nov. 2, 1983, thus designating the third
Monday in January a federal holiday in observance of
civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, according
to the museum.

The U.S. Postal Service, banks and stock markets will
also be closed on Jan. 20, however most restaurants,
grocery stores and retail stores will remain open.

President Ronald Reagan signing the MLK Holiday
Bill 1983.

Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)

On January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr was born in Atlanta,
Georgia, the son of a Baptist minister. King received a doctorate
degree in theology and in 1955 helped organize the first major
protest of the African American civil rights movement: the
successful Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Influenced by Mohandas Gandhi, he advocated civil disobedience
and nonviolent resistance to segregation in the South. The
peaceful protests he led throughout the American South were
often met with violence, but King and his followers persisted,
and the movement gained momentum.

Martin Luther King Jr.
(born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)

An armed group of white supremacists attacked a courthouse
guarded by a mostly-Black militia in the town of Colfax,
Louisiana on April 13, 1873. A bloodbath ensued, as the
militia surrendered and the white supremacists carried out a
day-long campaign of terror that came to be known as the
Colfax Massacre.

ROSS SIMPSON

In the name of African American voting rights, 3,200 civil rights demonstrators in Alabama, led by Martin Luther King Jr., began
an historic march from Selma to Montgomery, the state’s capital. Federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and FBI agents were
on hand to provide safe passage for the march, which twice had
been turned back by Alabama state police at Selma’s Edmund
Pettus Bridge.

On January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr.was born in Atlanta,
Georgia, the son of a Baptist minister. King received a doctorate
degree in theology and in 1955 helped organize the first major
protest of the African American civil rights movement: the
successful Montgomery Bus Boycott.

On October 14, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for
combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance.

In his final years, he expanded his focus to include opposition
towards poverty and the Vietnam War.