Martin Luther King, Jr. Day- January 19
The first federal holiday of 2026 is straight ahead.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day each year falls on the third Monday in January - near the civil rights leader’s birthday on Jan. 15, 1929. It’s held on a Monday to allow U.S. residents a three-day weekend. This year, the holiday is observed on Monday, Jan. 19.
WHY IS MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY ON THE THIRD MONDAY IN JANUARY?
The holiday is on the third Monday in January so it can be close to the civil rights leader’s birthday. It’s one of several holidays that fall on a Monday each year due to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. The then-president signed the bill to give workers long weekends throughout the year.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a holiday on Nov. 2, 1983 after President Ronald Reagan signed a bill into law officially establishing the commemoration. According to the Smithsonian, the holiday was first officially observed in 1986. It took longer for all 50 states to adopt the holiday as well, according to the National Constitution Center, but by 2000 all 50 states officially approved the day as a state government holiday.
The King family spent years after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 campaigning for a federal holiday to honor the civil rights leader, who earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his work to end segregation and target racism in America. Some years, Martin Luther King Jr. Day coincides with Inauguration Day, which occurs every four years on Jan. 20 or Jan. 21 if Jan. 20 falls on a Sunday. Presidents Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were inaugurated on the holiday.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.’S LEGACY
The civil rights icon is the only non-president honored by a federal holiday. The federal government closes on the day, and U.S. residents are given the opportunity to reflect on King’s legacy. King rose as a civil rights leader in 1955 during the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama.
Two years later, he founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1963, he led the March on Washington, delivering the famed “I Have a Dream” speech on the National Mall. {Click here for the text and to listen to the speech- Martin Luther King I Have a Dream Speech - American Rhetoric.}
King was 39 when was assassinated on April 4, 1968 while standing on a second-floor balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray confessed to King's shooting death and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Historic Tidbits
