Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a U.S. federal holiday in 1983, and it was first celebrated nationwide on January 20, 1986.

Key dates at a glance

  • 1968: The first bill to make MLK’s birthday a national holiday was introduced in Congress just days after his assassination.
  • November 2, 1983: President Ronald Reagan signed the law creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday, set for the third Monday in January.
  • January 20, 1986: The holiday was observed nationwide for the first time.
  • 2000: All 50 states were finally observing MLK Day in some form by this year.

How it became a holiday

  • After King’s assassination in April 1968, supporters quickly pushed for a national day of remembrance, but Congress resisted for years on political and racial grounds.
  • Persistent campaigns by civil rights leaders, lawmakers like Rep. John Conyers, and public pressure (including millions of petition signatures) kept the proposal alive through the 1970s and early 1980s.
  • The breakthrough came when Congress finally passed the bill in 1983, and Reagan agreed to sign it despite earlier hesitation.

Federal vs. state observance

  • Even after the federal law, some states resisted or renamed the holiday, sometimes combining it with other observances instead of honoring King directly.
  • Over time, public opinion and pressure led each holdout state to formally recognize the day, so by 2000 MLK Day was a state government holiday across the entire country.

When it’s celebrated each year

  • MLK Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January, landing around King’s January 15 birthday.
  • Because of the Monday schedule, the date shifts each year but always falls between January 15 and January 21.

TL;DR: Congress created Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday in 1983, with the first nationwide observance in 1986, and all 50 states recognized it by 2000.