Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day
MLK Day—the third Monday in January—was signed into law as a National Holiday celebrating the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. The day has historical significance in The Garden State.
King lived in Camden from ’48 to ’51 while serving as a seminarian studying for the ministry in Philadelphia. In fact, his first brush with racism—the spark that lit the fire of his lifelong battle for civil rights—took place in New Jersey in the sleepy little hamlet of Maple Shade within Burlington County when a local eatery refused to serve people of color. King, accompanied by two friends, went to the venue—Mary’s Café—on June 11, 1950. They were denied service. The bartender even went outside and shot his gun into the air in an effort to intimidate King and his two friends. It didn’t work. They stayed at the counter despite police telling them to leave. It was soon reported as Dr. King’s first act of civil disobedience.
Fifteen years later, in ’65, two years after he gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech during the 1963 March On Washington, he received an honorary Doctorate of Law from St. Peter’s College in Jersey City. He returned to Jersey City in 1968 at the A.M.E. Zion Church for his second most famous speech, “An American Dream,” emphasizing non-violent resistance, equality for all, and a vision of brotherhood that has yet to be realized. It was in support of that year’s Poor People Campaign and to dredge up national support for the Memphis Sanitation Strike, stressing the plight of all races who dwell in poverty. Just days later, April 4, 1968, he hit Memphis again in support of the strike. At approximately 6:00 p.m., shots rang out as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. He was 39.