Presidential Documents

7649 

Federal Register 

Vol. 90, No. 13 

Wednesday, January 22, 2025 

Title 3— 

The President 

Proclamation 10884 of January 17, 2025 

Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, 2025 

By the President of the United States of America 

A Proclamation 

Today, we honor the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther 

King, Jr., an inspirational leader whose moral vision and courage helped 

bend the arc of history toward justice. And we recommit to building the 

future he envisioned. 

Dr. King’s ministry, movement, and epic struggle for civil rights and voting 

rights sought to redeem the soul of our Nation. That soul is embodied 

in the sacred proposition that we are all created equal in the image of 

God. Dr. King invoked this proposition when, on that day in 1963, he 

told the Nation about a dream—a dream in which every person in this 

Nation is guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit 

of happiness. And he helped our country realize this proposition with 

the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act 

of 1965. 

But the battle for the soul of our Nation is perennial—a constant struggle 

between hope and fear, kindness and cruelty, and justice and injustice. 

It is a battle that has been waged on battlefields and bridges, and within 

courthouses and city councils. There is nothing guaranteed about our democracy. Every generation is required to keep it, defend it, and protect it. 

There is still so much to do to build the ‘‘Beloved Community’’ Dr. King 

envisioned—from securing economic justice and protecting our civil rights 

and liberties to ensuring everyone has the right to vote and have that 

vote counted. But I know it is possible because the power to redeem the 

soul of America has always been in the hands of ‘‘We the People.’’ Together, 

we can do our best to see each other not as enemies but as neighbors; 

to believe in and practice honesty, decency, and respect; and to fight for 

freedom, justice and democracy. 

Today, we remember Dr. King as a towering spiritual leader and a lifelong 

warrior for equality and justice. As we celebrate his legacy, I am reminded 

of this line from a gospel song: ‘‘We’ve come too far from where we started. 

Nobody told me that the road would be easy. I don’t believe He brought 

me this far to leave me.’’ Dr. King’s story is a reminder that progress 

is never easy—but it is always possible—and that good things get done 

on our march toward a more perfect Union. We have never lived up to 

the ideals of our Nation, but we have never walked away from them either. 

May we be inspired by Dr. King’s path and motivated by his legacy, working 

together to build a world founded on freedom, equality, and justice for 

all. 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States 

of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution 

and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Monday, January 

20, 2025, as the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday. I encourage all 

Americans to observe this day with appropriate civic, community, and service 

projects in honor of Dr. King and to visit MLKDay.gov to find Martin 

Luther King, Jr., Day of Service projects across our country. 


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7650 Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 13 / Wednesday, January 22, 2025 / Presidential Documents 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth 

day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-five, and 

of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 

and forty-ninth. 

[FR Doc. 2025–01600 

Filed 1–21–25; 8:45 am] 

Billing code 3395–F4–P 


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