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Hawaii State Holidays
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The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated in Hawaii on the third Monday In January. It is a day for honoring his ideas and achievements. Dr. King was a black civil rights Leader and clergyman in the southern United States in the 1950s and 1960s. He led the fight against the injustices done on black people, against the written and unwritten laws of segregation in the South and the North. Dr. King saw the ways American blacks were suffering. Many of them were not allowed to vote. Blacks had to drink from separate drinking fountains and go to separate schools. And the only seats on buses they could use were the ones in the back. King's way of fighting was non-violent. In many ways, King followed the philosophy of India's Mohandas Gandhi who employed nonviolence to protest his country's unjust laws. He organized sit-ins and led large numbers of blacks and concerned whites to peacefully boycott stores, bus lines, and other businesses that treated blacks unfairly. King helped to organize and lead the historic March on Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. Thousands of blacks and whites marched to demonstrate their desire for full civil rights. King gave an unforgettable speech entitled "I have a Dream." He dreamed that someday there would be freedom and justice for all Americans. Slowly, his work helped to change laws and social practices. In 1964, Dr. King was awarded the Nobel peace prize for his leadership in the civil rights movement. He was, at 35, the youngest man ever to receive it. It is sad to note that King's life came to a tragic end. On April 4, 1968, he was shot and killed by an assassin outside of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. |
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