Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2016

The United States have federally observed the third Monday of January as Martin Luther King Jr. day since 1986, and all 50 states have observed it since 2000.  Then president Ronald Reagan first signed the holiday into law in 1983, although it wasn’t observed until 3 years later.   The holiday falls near or on King’s January 15^th birthday and serves to honor his devoted activism with the Civil Rights Movement until his 1968 assassination. 

At Dartmouth and in the Upper Valley, there are many opportunities to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Today at 4pm, Reverend Leah Daughtry ’84 will speak in Room 003 of the Rockefeller Center; Daughtry is CEO of the 2016 Democratic National Convention Committee and will lecture on “Words & Their Consequences: Civil Discourse in 21^st Century.”  On Sunday Daughtry will speak again, this time at The William Jewett Tucker Center’s Community Multi-Faith Celebration honoring the life and works of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at 3pm in Rollins Chapel.  On Monday, the holiday itself, there will be a celebration breakfast at 8:30am in the Hanover Inn, Dartmouth 105 will play audio recordings of his famous “I Have a Dream” at 12pm and 4:30pm in Dartmouth 105, there will be a Candlelight Vigil Procession at 5pm beginning in Cutter-Shabazz, and finally performer and speaker Rohina Malik will give the Keynote Address in the Moore Theater at 7pm.  Dartmouth has a dedicated webpage to the entire program of events arranged to celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Written by Doug Phipps '17, Rockefeller Center Student Program Assistant for Communications and Student Outreach