Just four days after King’s assassination in 1968, US Rep. John Conyers of Michigan introduced legislation for a federal holiday to honor the civil rights leader.

Detroiters like Stevie Wonder and John Conyers were instrumental in making Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday.

Four days after his assassination, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, introduced a bill in the Congress to recognize King’s birthday as a national holiday.

Just four days after King’s assassination in 1968, US Rep. John Conyers of Michigan introduced legislation for a federal holiday to honor the civil rights leader.

King’s actual birthday is on January 15, but the federal holiday always falls on the third Monday of January. Just four days after King’s assassination in 1968, US Rep. John Conyers of ...

Conyers, a former labor attorney, had been elected to Congress in 1964. One of his campaign workers was civil rights icon Rosa Parks, arrested nearly a decade prior in Montgomery, Alabama, for ...