King's own words on display for his holiday - USATODAY.com: The handwritten personal papers of Martin Luther King Jr., including his sermons and the 'I Have a Dream' speech, will be on display in Atlanta today, one of many tributes planned for the late civil rights leader.
Schools, banks, federal offices and post offices are closed today as the nation observes the 21st annual King holiday.
In Washington, D.C., the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation is announcing $3 million in new contributions from corporations. That will bring the total raised to $76 million toward a goal of $100 million. The memorial will be built along the Tidal Basin, between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials.
King, who was assassinated in 1968, would be 78 years old today.
'He was the irresistible force that made the immovable object of segregation move,' Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said Sunday. 'We who admired him so much can honor him the most by carrying on his work. Civil rights is still the unfinished business of America.'
The memorial is scheduled for completion in 2008. It will be the first memorial on the National Mall for a non-president and the first for an African-American.
The Atlanta History Center opens an exhibit today of King's handwritten papers. One is his 'I Have a Dream' speech, delivered to 200,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington in August 1963. Also being displayed is King's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail,' in which he laid out his opposition to segregation and said citizens had an obligation to disobey unjust laws.
The papers are from the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection.
Legislation signed into law by President Reagan in 1983 designated the third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Day. The holiday, first observed in 1986, is timed to fall on or around King's birthday, Jan. 15.
