It was first proposed four days after King's 1968 assassination outside a Memphis motel. It took 15 years until it became a federal holiday.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was one of the most prominent leaders of America's Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 60s. His words and actions have left a lasting mark on America and the world as a whole,