CNN News:纪念美国民权领袖马丁·路德·金

I'm Carl Azuz for cnn 10 and this particular Friday leads into a three-day weekend for many folks across America because January 20th is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. It's named for the American Baptist minister and civil rights leader who was actually born on January 15th in 1929. But for more than three decades, the federal holiday that honors his accomplishments has been celebrated on the third Monday in January.
Public events, marches, speeches by civil rights leaders and politicians are all part of it. And the U.S. government recognizes Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a day of service. It's said to be a day on, not a day off. And the goal of that is to encourage Americans to volunteer in their communities to improve them.
Dr. King himself was the leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association, named for the city of Montgomery, Alabama, which is now known as the birthplace of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. King had a reputation for being an eloquent speaker. He felt strongly that peaceful events like marches were the best methods of achieving civil rights for African Americans.

King's influence was growing when he founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. And in 1963 he led the March on Washington, where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The next year, Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
When changes within the civil rights movement and occasional discouragement challenged him in the late 1960s, King found revival through his Christian faith.