Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 he was an important leader of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1950s and 60s. The holiday was created as a day to remember his fight for the freedom, equality, and dignity of all races and peoples and as a time to remember the message of change through nonviolence. He gave his most famous speech  “I have a dream” during the March on Washington in 1963. He was assassinated in 1968 but his legacy lives on. MLK Day is always celebrated on the third Monday in January.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
– Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream quote