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Monday – January 20 – marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the federal holiday that honors the life and legacy of the American civil rights icon who was assassinated in Memphis, Tn., in 1968.

The holiday didn’t come together seamlessly. Efforts from King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, lawmakers, activists and others took years.

This year the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States falls on the same day.

The holiday is observed each year on the third Monday of January, and the commemoration is the only federal holiday that is “designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer and improve their communities.”

This year on Monday, the ETSU faculty students and faculty will participate in a Day of Service at the Carver Recreation Center in Johnson City. January being Black History Month is one of many events being hosted by ETSU to celebrate the month along with King’s birthday. Some churches in the area will also have special services commemorating the day and the man for whom the day is named.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day came about when former U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced legislation to create a federal holiday honoring King on April 8, 1968, just four days after the civil rights leader’s assassination. 

Over the next decade, support for the holiday would swell across the country, and several states, including Illinois, Massachusetts and Connecticut, would enact statewide holidays honoring King. 

Conyers spent years reintroducing the federal legislation, with support from lawmakers in the Congressional Black Caucus. And in 1979, on what would have been King’s 50th birthday, the bill came up in the House, but it failed by five votes.  

The fight to create the holiday didn’t stop at the narrow vote. Coretta Scott King and others campaigned for the holiday and rallied the public.

King would testify before Congress multiple times. She and singer Stevie Wonder, who released his song “Happy Birthday” in support of enacting the holiday, delivered a petition in favor of the holiday with over 6 million signatures in 1982.

The House ultimately approved the holiday in 1983, and though the push to create the commemoration faced some opposition in the Senate, former President Ronald Reagan signed it into law later that year.

The first national holiday honoring King was celebrated in 1986. But it took longer than that for states across the country to adopt the holiday, including fights in Arizona, South Carolina and elsewhere, according to the National Constitution Center. The holiday has been recognized in each state since 2000. 

The holiday recognizes King’s birthday, January 15.

But Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January due to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which former President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law in 1968. It originally designated three federal holidays, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and former President George Washington’s birthday, to be marked on Mondays.  

Because Monday is also inauguration Day, it will come with various bits of pomp and circumstances as President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance are sworn into office.

Your daily life will see some interruptions – though they don’t have much to do with the inauguration. Like any other federal holiday, you can expect to see some things unavailable on MLK Day this year.

You can expect an empty mailbox on Jan. 20, as the U.S. The Postal Service will not be making regular mail deliveries in observance of MLK Day. Post offices will also be closed but Priority Mail Express will still be operational.

Because MLK Day is a federal holiday, banks will also be closed. Their ATMs and online services should still be accessible.

Some, but not all, schools close for Martin Luther King Jr. Day as well. Other public offerings, like libraries, Departments of Motor Vehicles, and local government offices also frequently close. Before visiting any of these spaces on Jan. 20, be sure to call ahead or check online to confirm hours.

Elizabethton will not pick up garbage Monday as the city is celebrating the holiday. Garbage service will be a day late this week in the city with Thursday and Friday collections collected on 

Friday. Regardless, whether you celebrate Monday as Martin Luther King Jr. Day or Inauguration Day, it’s a day off for most people, and that is worth celebrating, too.