Jan. 19 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Episcopal churches and schools nationwide will celebrate with worship services and events centering on social justice.
While the civil rights leader would have turned 97 on Jan. 15, activities will take place around the official federal holiday commemorating King on the third Monday in January.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was the key leader in the nonviolent equality movement for Black Americans in the 1950s and 1960s. Based in part on the impact of the 1963 March on Washington and King’s “I have a dream” speech, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act and a year later the Voting Rights Act. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at 39, during a trip to Memphis, Tennessee, to support city sanitation workers who were striking for better pay and working conditions. He is honored in The Episcopal Church’s Lesser Feasts and Fasts calendar on April 4. To read more, click here
