Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 20, has grown into a weeklong memorial in some U.S. cities.
Denver had a prayer vigil on Jan. 13. Michigan State University’s Broad Art Museum opened an MLK art exhibition March 14. Biloxi began a weekend of celebrations on Jan. 16.
Maybe it’s fitting that the holiday has outgrown 24 hours, because it took so long for it to arrive.
The first Congressional bill to create a holiday for the civil rights leader was introduced by U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, four days after King’s assassination in 1968.
President Ronald Reagan signed a law making it official in 1983 and it went into effect in 1986, 18 years after Conyers’ initial bill.
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