DOD pays tribute to MLK Published Jan. 13, 2014 Department of Defense MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Martin Luther King's death did not slow the Civil Rights Movement. Black and white people continued to fight for freedom and equality. Coretta Scott King is the widow of the civil rights leader. In 1970, she established the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center in Atlanta. This "living memorial" consists of his boyhood home and the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King is buried. On Monday, Jan. 20, 1986, in cities and towns across the country people celebrated the first official Martin Luther King Day, the only federal holiday commemorating an African-American. A ceremony that took place at an old railroad depot in Atlanta was especially emotional. Hundreds had gathered to sing and to march. Many were the same people who, in 1965, had marched for 50 miles between two cities in Alabama to protest segregation and discrimination of black Americans. All through the 1980s, controversy surrounded the idea of a Martin Luther King Day. Congressmen and citizens had petitioned the President to make Jan. 15, King's birthday, a federal legal holiday. Others wanted to make the holiday on the day he died, while some people did not want to have any holiday at all. Jan. 15 had been observed as a legal holiday for many years in 27 states and Washington, D.C. Finally, in 1986, President Ronald Reagan declared the third Monday in January a federal legal holiday commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday. Schools, offices and federal agencies are closed for the holiday. On Monday there are quiet memorial services as well as elaborate ceremonies in honor of King. On the preceding Sunday, ministers of all religions give special sermons reminding everyone of King's lifelong work for peace. All weekend, popular radio stations play songs and speeches that tell the history of the Civil Rights Movement. Television channels broadcast special programs with filmed highlights of King's life and times.