Martin Luther King Jr. Day: A Celebration of the Redemption of America’s Principles

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King (1929–1968) addresses crowds during the "March on Washington" at the Lincoln Memorial in D.C., where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963. Central Press/Getty Images

Commentary

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is unique among national holidays in that it honors the one American who profoundly described and demonstrated through love and nonviolence a picture of the fulfillment of core values expressed in both the country’s founding Declaration of Independence in 1776 and in President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in 1863.