WASHINGTON — President Ronald Reagan signed legislation on Nov. 2, 1983, establishing a federal holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a milestone reached after years of organizing and congressional debate.
The measure, H.R. 3706, became Public Law 98-144. It designated the third Monday in January as a federal holiday commemorating King’s birthday. The first federal observance followed in 1986.
The campaign did not begin with the signing ceremony. Labor leaders, civil-rights organizations, Coretta Scott King and members of Congress pressed for national recognition for years. Rep. Katie Hall of Indiana sponsored the House bill that cleared Congress in 1983 after earlier proposals had stalled.
King led nonviolent campaigns against racial segregation and discrimination, including the Montgomery bus boycott, and helped build public support for landmark civil-rights and voting-rights laws. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and was assassinated in Memphis in 1968 at age 39.
The Reagan Presidential Library’s official record dates the signing to Nov. 2, 1983. The anniversary marks both the law itself and the sustained civic work required to move the proposal from advocacy into national policy.
