Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Essays | Frank Yang | Jan 17th, 2022.

January 17, 2022 marks Martin Luther King Jr Day, a federal holiday that commemorates one of the main leaders of the civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was a social activist who sought to establish economic and social equality for African Americans through nonviolent protests.

King first entered the spotlight after the Montgomery bus boycott, which occurred from 1955-1956. King was elected to lead this boycott. Approximately 40,000 Black bus riders refused to ride on the public buses, protesting segregation. The boycott lasted 381 days before a Supreme Court decision integrated all buses.

King also played a key role in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, an event which aimed to highlight the economic injustices Black Americans faced. Around 200,000 to 300,000 people attended this march. The March on Washington helped to lay the groundwork for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

In 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his “nonviolent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population.” 

On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated in Memphis by an escaped convict named James Earl Ray. By the time he died, he was one of the most hated people in America, with a disapproval percentage of nearly 75%, including significant portions of the Black population.

This year is the 93rd year that MLK Day has been celebrated. However, this year the King family is calling for no celebration of the holiday unless voting rights legislation is passed. On the holiday, the family and other activists plan to march across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington DC and another bridge in Phoenix, mirroring the voting rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in 1965.