Why Do We Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day?

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is about celebrating a man who changed our world for the better. He helped, in a nonviolent way, to make America a society in which everyone has equal opportunities. Martin Luther King Jr. was a activist for the civil rights of African-Americans and other ethnic groups. He led the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, and helped form the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference). The Montgomery, Alabama boycott was important because it helped to changed segregation laws. Later he became SCLC’s first president. King marched in Washington D.C., and with the help of the SCLC, he led a nonviolent protest where he gave his most famous speech containing the phrase, “I have a dream.”

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is on the third Monday of January, close to Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. In 1971, SCLC attained 3 million signatures for the bill so it could become a holiday. Martin Luther King Jr Day didn’t become a federal holiday until 1983, though most did not acknowledge it until 1986. Some argued that King shouldn’t have a holiday for reasons like he was a unfaithful husband or communist sympathizer.

Brooke Rinehimer, a seventh grader at BTMS says, “Just because someone is has a different skin tone doesn't mean they are different in any way and we all can help strive to make things better in our country.” Today racist acts still occur. Some people still judge people by their race, some still use racial slurs, and there are still incidents incited by racial prejudice. Mrs. Seung Lee, an English and social studies teacher at BMTS said, “I still feel like we have a long way to go—we still need to be aware of racism.”

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