[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 2 (Monday, January 16, 1995)]
[Pages 49-50]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6765--Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, 1995

January 11, 1995

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

      As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even 
      if I have a billion dollars . . . I can never be what I ought to 
      be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world 
      is made. No individual or nation can stand out boasting of being 
      independent. We are interdependent.

    With resolution and eloquence, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stirred 
people around the globe to action. He dedicated his life to ending the 
oppression of racism, and his vision of a nation driven by love instead 
of hate changed our world forever. We are all the beneficiaries of his 
legacy, and we are grateful.
    Dr. King taught that the goals of civil rights are not merely the 
goals of any specific group--they are the goals of our Nation. To give 
people opportunity, to treat them with fairness, and to distinguish them 
only by their potential--we will continue to work toward these goals as 
long as people in this Nation

[[Page 50]]

are in need of housing, medical care, and subsistence. We will continue 
to work as long as neighborhoods are ravaged by drugs and violence. We 
will continue to work as long as any person, because of circumstance of 
birth, is granted anything less than the full measure of his or her 
dignity.
    Three decades have passed since Dr. King stood in front of the 
Lincoln Memorial and told the world of his dream for a future in which 
our children are judged ``not by the color of their skin, but by the 
content of their character.'' Today, with an entire generation of voting 
Americans who did not witness firsthand the great civil rights victories 
of the 1960s, it is more important than ever to remind the Nation about 
Dr. King and his inestimable gifts to this country, so that all of us 
continue to grow in our commitment to justice and equality.
    This year, the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday is celebrated with a 
national day of service, a call to join together in purpose and care for 
one another. On this occasion, I urge the citizens of this great country 
to reflect upon Dr. King's teachings and to take positive and life-
affirming action in his memory. Give back to your community, help the 
homeless, feed the hungry, attend to the sick, give to the needy. In 
whatever way you choose to serve the public good, do something to make 
life better for the people around you. As Dr. King said on many 
occasions, ``Life's most persistent and urgent question is, `What are 
you doing for others?' ''
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 
16, 1995, as the ``Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday.''
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eleventh day of 
January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
nineteenth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:07 a.m., January 12, 
1995]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on January 
13.