[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 3 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Pages 111-112]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7390--Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, 2001

January 12, 2001

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Seventy-two years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr., was born into a 
sharply divided Nation, a place where the color of a child's skin too 
often determined that child's destiny. America was a place where 
segregation and discrimination put limits on a black child's dreams, 
opportunities, and future.
    Dr. King led America to a better place. With eloquence, he 
articulated the struggles and hopes of generations of African Americans. 
With the power of his leadership, he rallied Americans of every race and 
creed to join together in the march for justice. With courage, 
conviction, and faith in God, he sought to make real in everyday 
practice--in schools, in the workplace, in public accommodations, and in 
the hearts and minds of his fellow citizens--the civil rights victories 
that had been won in the courts.
    Although his life was cruelly cut short before his mission was 
complete, he helped put our Nation firmly on the right path, where the 
ideals of liberty, equality, brotherhood, and justice are not merely 
words on a page,

[[Page 112]]

but values honored by all. ``Our freedom was not won a century ago,'' he 
said in 1968, ``it is not won today; but some small part of it is in our 
hands, and we are marching no longer by ones and twos but in legions of 
thousands, convinced now it cannot be denied by any human force.''
    It is up to each of us to continue that march. The gallant freedom 
riders and freedom fighters of the civil rights era are growing older, 
and many, like Martin Luther King, Jr., are no longer among us. But 
their work must go on. There are still too many in our Nation who do not 
share equally in America's prosperity; minority unemployment and poverty 
rates, while decreasing, are still far above the national average; and 
the technical skills and resources needed for success in the global 
economy are still out of reach for hundreds of thousands of young 
Americans growing up in disadvantaged communities.
    I encourage my fellow Americans to use this holiday, dedicated to 
the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and to his spirit of service, 
not as a day off, but rather as a day to make a difference in the lives 
of others--an opportunity to recognize where we have fallen short, to 
reach out to those who have been left behind, and to remove the barriers 
that keep us from becoming the promised land that Dr. King envisioned.
    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 Monday, 
January 15, 2001, as the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday. I 
call upon all Americans to observe this occasion with appropriate 
programs, ceremonies, and activities in honor of Dr. King's life and 
achievements and in response to his call to service.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of 
January, in the year of our Lord two thousand one, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
fifth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., January 17, 
2001]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on January 
18. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.