(New York, NY) -- America is reflecting on the legacy of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Post offices are closed, most banks are closed, and mass transit is mostly on a holiday schedule.
While Martin Luther King Day was created in 1983 after the signing of legislation by President Ronald Reagan, the movement to honor Dr. King's birthday actually began 15 years earlier, days after his assassination in 1968.
The first federal MLK holiday went into effect on January 20th, 1986. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15th, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He would have been 90 years old this year.
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