FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, January 16, 2004
|
The White House - Office of the Press Secretary
|
Martin Luther King, Jr, Federal Holiday, 2004 |
|
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
On the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, our Nation honors an
American who dedicated his life to the fundamental principles of freedom,
opportunity, and equal justice for all. Today, all Americans benefit from Dr.
King's work and his legacy of courage, dignity, and moral clarity.
Forty years ago this past August, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr.
King spoke passionately of his dream for America. He dreamed of an America where
all citizens would be judged by the content of their character and not by the
color of their skin. He dreamed of an America where all would enjoy the riches
of freedom and the security of justice. He dreamed of an America where the doors
of opportunity would be open to all of God's children.
Dr. King's leadership moved Americans to examine our hearts -- to reject what
he called the "tranquilizing drug of gradualism" on the path to racial justice
-- and to live up to the ideals of our Constitution and Declaration of
Independence. America has come far in realizing Dr. King's dream, but there is
still work to be done. In remembering Dr. King's vision and life of service, we
renew our commitment to guaranteeing the unalienable rights of life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, 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 19, 2004, as the Martin Luther
King, Jr., Federal Holiday. I encourage all Americans to observe this day with
appropriate activities and programs that honor the memory and legacy of Dr.
King.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of
January, in the year of our Lord two thousand four, and of the Independence of
the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-eighth.
GEORGE W. BUSH
# # #
|