[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 13 (Friday, January 22, 2021)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 6555-6556]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-01565]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 13 / Thursday, January 22, 2021 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 6555]]


                Proclamation 10135 of January 15, 2021

                
Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, 2021

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                On August 28, 1963, just a century after the 
                Emancipation Proclamation, the Reverend Dr. Martin 
                Luther King, Jr. led more than 200,000 Americans in a 
                March on Washington in pursuit of jobs and freedom for 
                all people. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln 
                Memorial, he called on Americans ``to sit down together 
                at the table of brotherhood'' and meet our promise of 
                life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. On 
                that historic day, and throughout his life, Dr. King 
                exemplified the quintessential American belief that we 
                will leave a brighter, more prosperous future for our 
                children. Today, we honor and celebrate Dr. King, a 
                giant of the civil rights movement whose nonviolent 
                resistance to the injustices of his era--racial 
                segregation, employment discrimination, and the denial 
                of the right to vote--enlightened our Nation and the 
                world.

                In the face of tumult and upheaval, Dr. King reminded 
                us to always meet anger with compassion in order to 
                truly ``heal the hurts, right the wrongs and change 
                society.'' It is with this same spirit of forgiveness 
                that we come together to bind the wounds of past 
                injustice by lifting up one another regardless of race, 
                gender, creed, or religion, and rising to the first 
                principles enshrined in our founding documents. Indeed, 
                Dr. King described our Constitution and Declaration of 
                Independence as promissory notes left by our Founding 
                Fathers for ``every American to fall heir.'' His dream, 
                rooted in the American Dream, was that our children 
                might be ``judged not by the color of their skin, but 
                by the content of their character.'' This dream, he 
                hoped, would finally let freedom ring for all people.

                As Dr. King stated in 1961, at the heart of his dream 
                is ``equality of opportunity.'' For Dr. King, the march 
                toward civil rights is intertwined with economic 
                empowerment. My Administration has fully embraced this 
                spirit, taking historic action to create jobs and 
                uplift every community across our country and reaching 
                the lowest unemployment rate for Black Americans ever 
                recorded. Through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, we 
                created nearly 9,000 Opportunity Zones that have 
                produced more than $75 billion in new investment in 
                distressed neighborhoods. My Administration has 
                supported our Nation's incredible Historically Black 
                Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in several ways, 
                including by establishing the President's Board of 
                Advisors on HBCUs, reauthorizing more than $85 million 
                in funding for them through the FUTURE Act, and 
                allocating $930 million in higher education emergency 
                relief through the CARES Act. As President, I have 
                fully committed to the educational and economic 
                empowerment of minority communities and young people 
                across our Nation--and the progress we have made must 
                continue into the future.

                It is clear now more than ever before that we can no 
                longer allow the American Dream to be deferred for 
                Black Americans. However, in this march toward 
                equality, we cannot permit any ``creative protest to 
                degenerate into physical violence.'' As a student of 
                nonviolence, Dr. King called on us not to ``satisfy the 
                thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of 
                bitterness and hatred.'' In the national effort to 
                achieve freedom and equality, and in this shared love 
                of country, we must endeavor with all our might to

[[Page 6556]]

                meet the promissory notes endowed to us by our Founding 
                Fathers, as Dr. King fervently wished.

                With the same dream, faith, and hope championed by the 
                Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we recommit to 
                upholding his legacy and meeting our sacred obligation 
                to protect the unalienable rights of all Americans.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the 
                United States, do hereby proclaim January 18, 2021, as 
                the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday. On this 
                day, I encourage all Americans to recommit themselves 
                to Dr. King's dream by engaging in acts of service to 
                others, to their community, and to our Nation.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and forty-
                fifth.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2021-01565
Filed 1-21-21; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3295-F1-P