Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated the third Monday in January.  This holiday celebrates the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr., an influential American civil rights leader. King is most well-known for his campaigns to end racial segregation on public transport and for racial equality in the United States.  King also rose to national prominence as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. This organization hoped to promote nonviolent protests against racism and segregation

Interesting Facts about Martin Luther King Jr. include:

• King was born as Michael Luther King, Jr. but changed his name to Martin as did his father in honor of the founder of the Lutheran denomination.
• King sang with his church choir at the 1939 Atlanta premiere of the movie Gone with the Wind.
• On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.  As a result, King helped organize The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted over 1 year.  At the end of the boycott the United States Court ruled to end racial segregation on all Montgomery public buses.
• In August, 1963 King organized a march a peaceful; protest at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.  With over 200,000 people at the march King gave his famous speech “I have A Dream”
• King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10,1964 for leading non-0viloenet and civil rights demonstrations
• In honor of King who was shot on April 4, 1968 the Martin Luther Memorial was opened to the public on October 16, 2011 instead of the originally planned date of August 22nd.  The reason for the delay was due to the ill effects of Hurricane Irene. .

 Excerpts of famous speeches delivered by Martin Luther King: