Brooksville, Florida (January 10, 2023) – At the first Brooksville City Council Meeting of 2023, the Brooksville City Council honored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by proclaiming Monday, January 16, 2023, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., born on January 15, 1929, was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesman and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He devoted his life to justice and equality for people of all races and economic standings through non-violent means, which led to the establishment of many laws prohibiting discrimination and fostering human rights.
Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement helped change public policy from segregation to integration, resulting in the repeal of the Post-Reconstruction Era state laws mandating racial segregation in the south known as the “Jim Crow Laws,” and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and other antidiscrimination laws aimed at ending economic, legal, and social segregation in America.
Dr. King believed that service was “the soul’s highest purpose,” and was the path to happiness and greatness. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is remembered for his belief in a world where the dignity of every person is respected, where people are judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character; and where the hope of a better tomorrow is in every neighborhood.
In 1968, just four days after King’s assassination, Representative John Conyers, from Michigan, introduced the first motion to make King’s birthday a federal holiday. However, it took another 15 years before it was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in January 1983. The national Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday is a celebration of Dr. King's legacy and focuses on the issue of civil rights; highlights the use of nonviolence to promote change; and calls people into public service. Each year on the third Monday in January, we as a nation, reflect on the work that has been done and still needs to be done for racial equality.
Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Nobel Peace Prize lecture and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” are among the most revered orations and writings in the English language. He is the only non-president to have a national holiday dedicated in his honor and is the only non-president memorialized on the Great Mall in the nation’s capital. He is memorialized in hundreds of statues, parks, streets, squares, churches, and other public facilities around the world.
To recognize King’s efforts, the Brooksville City Council calls upon every citizen to actively engage in public service and to join together for a special day of community unity on this National Holiday.
For information regarding the proclamation contact the City of Brooksville at 352-540-3810 or cob-info@cityofbrooksville.us or for more information on the holiday visit: https://thekingcenter.org/.