It was first proposed four days after King's 1968 assassination outside a Memphis motel. It took 15 years until it became a federal holiday.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.” -- Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865.

For some, the holiday is just that — time off from work or school. But, King’s family and others carrying on his legacy of equality, justice and non-violent protest want Americans to remember that thi