Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – Fly your flag today

[Borrowed, with express permission, from Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.]

You already have it up and waving, right? Did I really need to remind you?

Google logo for Martin Luther King, Jr., Day 2012 - click for more information

Fly your flag today, in honor of our nation, and in honor of our nation’s honoring the memory and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

U.S. law encourages Americans to fly the U.S. flag on holidays and a few other occasions. Congress set aside the third Monday in January as a holiday to commemorate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

To honor Dr. King, for several years civil rights leaders and others have urged us to find some way to serve our communities on this day — Americans have done it long enough to make it a tradition. Here’s the official find-a-way-to-serve page from the the federal government; look out your window, go spend a few minutes at your city hall, post office, or at the biggest church in town, or walk into any middle school in America, and opportunities to serve will caress you at every turn.

More, much more:

• Obama gives place of honor to bust of King in the Oval Office, St. Louis Post-Dispatch blog; ABC News story
• The King Center homepage
• Biography of the winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize for Peace, at the Nobel Foundation site
• Dr. King’s Nobel Prize Lecture, “The Quest for Peace and Justice,” December 11, 1964
• Short video of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway, 1964
• “Economic equality a part of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream,” San Jose Mercury-News, January 16, 2012
• SMU’s week in 2008 commemorating Dr. King and his visit to SMU
• Enchanted Learning’s page on King (a good resource for students’ report ideas)
• Stanford University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute (a stellar resource for teachers)
• Seattle Times special report on King
• Tribute at 56 Rebels (good videos of King speeches)

King, by photographer Ben Fernandez's portfolio of photos from one year in the life of Dr. King, "Countdown to Eternity"

• 2009 MLK Day post at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub (see resources)
• “Arc of History, Under the St. Louis Arch”
• 2008 MLK Day post here

Google's logo for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 2010 - click for more information