You are here

  1. Home
  2. January 15th is Martin Luther King Day

January 15th is Martin Luther King Day

Martin Luther King Day is a federal holiday in America, observed on the third Monday in January. It is celebrated as a Day of Service – where people are encouraged to spend the day volunteering in the service of their community.

King is remembered for his use of nonviolent protest methods during the American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s – travelling over six million miles across America in the ten years prior to his death, and speaking in public over 2,500 times. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his work in fighting racial inequality through nonviolent resistance – the youngest person at the time to have received such an award.

King delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech on 28th August 1963 – calling for an end to racism and segregation in the United States – from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. You can listen to an original recording of this iconic speech on National Public Radio