Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday held in honor of the late, great civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
All public schools and government offices were closed on Monday, and usually in past years this day has featured some local marches and services honoring Dr. King and other heroes of the civil rights movement.
But, according to Carroll County Register of Deeds Natalie McCullough Porter, none of these events were held this year due to public health concerns related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Still, we here at the Carroll County New-Leader would like to pause and recognize Dr. King’s considerable contributions to civil rights and to our national character, as well as all the local contributions of the black community to the life and enrichment of Carroll County.
Born Michael King, Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929, Dr. King was a Baptist minister and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the U.S. from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968 in Memphis.
His leadership was fundamental to that movement’s success in ending the legal segregation of African Americans here in the South and other parts of the U.S. King rose to national prominence as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which promoted nonviolent tactics, such as the massive March on Washington in 1963.
King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
