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Martin Luther King Jr. Day (MLK Day) is an American federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around King's birthday, January 15. The holiday is similar to holidays set under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.
King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. The campaign for a federal holiday in King's honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. In 1994 Congress passed a bill to dedicate the national holiday as a national day of service. The King Holiday and Service Act was introduced by Congressman John Lewis and Senator Harris Wofford, both of whom had worked alongside Dr. King in civil rights activism. The day is often marked with rallies, service opportunities, and community educational events, such as teach-ins.
Martin Luther King, Jr., 1958 [in the Shad Polier Papers, P-572] [Item is digitized and available online]
Signed correspondence from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Shad Polier.
Martin Luther King, Jr. addressing twelve American Jewish communities by telephone hookup from Atlanta, Georgia, December 1, 1966 National Conference on Soviet Jewry Records (I-181 and I-181A) [Audio is available online]
Collection contains correspondence and other documents connected to Polier’s close involvement with the NAACP, where he served on the Executive Committee of its Legal and Educational Defense Fund for thirty years. Series I Sub-Series 3, Series III, and Series V include relevant materials.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Harry Belafonte near podium. [in American Jewish Congress, I-77] [Item is digitized and available online]
1 black and white photograph from Montgomery March, 1965
Dangerous Friendship: Stanley Levison, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Kennedy Brothers / Ben Kamin. 2014.
Fight against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights / Clive Webb. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2001.
Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement / Debra L. Schultz ; Foreword by Blanche Wiesen Cook. New York: New York University Press, 2001.
Heeding the Call: Jewish Voices in America's Civil Rights Struggle / Norman H. Finkelstein. 1st ed. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1997.
The Moral Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. / by Marc H. Tanenbaum. New York: American Jewish Committee, Institute of Human Relations, 1983.
The Quiet Voices: Southern Rabbis and Black Civil Rights, 1880s to 1990s / Edited by Mark K. Bauman and Berkley Kalin. Judaic Studies Series (Unnumbered). Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997.
Shared Dreams: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Jewish Community / Rabbi Marc Schneier; Preface by Martin Luther King III. 1st ed. Woodstock, Vt.: Jewish Lights, 1999.
To Stand Aside or Stand Alone: Southern Reform Rabbis and the Civil Rights Movement / P. Allen Krause; edited by Mark K. Bauman with Stephen Krause. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2016.