Birthday of Martin Luther King,Jr.
Each year on the third Monday of January, a day that falls on ornear King’s birthday of January 15th, schools, federal offices, post office andbanks across America close as people honor the civil rights leader – Martin LutherKing Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.was the most important voice of the American civil rights movement, whichworked for equal rights for all. King spent his life protesting the unfairtreatment of African Americans in the US. He used peaceful marches and powerspeeches to make Americans realize that treating people differently because oftheir skin color was wrong.
On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King led the “Marchon Washington”. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King delivered aspeech that was later entitled “I Have a Dream”. Also in this year, King helpedorganize some nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama, which convinced theUS Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act made it illegal in Americato treat blacks or other ethnic groups unfairly. His efforts to win civilrights earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the youngest man to havereceived the Nobel Peace Prize.
On the evening of April 4th, 1968, Kingwas shot and died in hospital. He is remembered for the great changes he madeto American society and for the peaceful means that he used to make them. The thirdMonday of every January is a national holiday that honors King’s birthday. PresidentRonald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, which was first observedthree years later. Because of the resistance in some states, it was officiallyobserved in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.
（↓ 下面是“I Have A Dream”的完整演讲，当时录音录像条件有限，不是很清晰，没有字幕，具体演讲内容可以参考视频下面的链接。第12分钟开始是通常最为人所知的片段。）
