How to celebrate MLK Day around Connecticut

Joseph Tucci | CT Insider

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated this year on Jan. 16, honoring the birthday of one of the most well-known leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, which sought to end racial discrimination in the United States.

To honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and legacy, communities all across Connecticut are hosting events, as well as doing community service, on or around the holiday that aim to promote King’s vision of a more equal world.

King himself has roots in the Nutmeg State, working at a Simsbury tobacco farm, worshipping alongside white residents at a Simsbury church and eating at a restaurant in Hartford, during a time when that was not common for Black individuals, according to connecticuthistory.org.

Martin Luther King Jr., Day became a federal holiday when President Ronald Reagan signed it into law Nov. 2, 1983. Legislation to create the holiday was introduced four days after King was assassinated in Tennessee, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The day also aims to promote the use of nonviolence as a means to achieve change, according to the National Constitution Center.