“He made our nation stronger because he made it better.” Martin Luther King Day

Today, Monday 19 January, is Martin Luther King Day, a day honouring this hero of Black Civil Rights in the US. Martin Luther King jnr led many marches across the US promoting the rights for Black Americans. He was assassinated on 4 April 1968, aged only 39. His passionate speeches advocating peace and equality inspired…

theorkneynews

January 19, 2026

1–2 minutes

activism, Black Power, civil rights, Equality, Martin Luther King, News, Trump

Martin Luther King jnr looking at the camera

Today, Monday 19 January, is Martin Luther King Day, a day honouring this hero of Black Civil Rights in the US.

Martin Luther King jnr led many marches across the US promoting the rights for Black Americans. He was assassinated on 4 April 1968, aged only 39.

His passionate speeches advocating peace and equality inspired generations to come. He was jailed several times. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director J. Edgar Hoover considered King a radical and made him an object of COINTELPRO from 1963. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, spied on his personal life, and secretly recorded him.

Even today, his ideas of ending segregation, promoting equal rights and peaceful activism disturbs the current Trump administration. Although Martin Luther King Day is a Federal Holiday, Trump removed it from the list of free access days to US National Parks – replacing it with Trump’s own birthday. In a counter response on 16 January, California Governor Gavin Newsome announced free entry at more than 200 of California’s state parks for MLK Day 2026 — “inviting Californians to get outside and honour Dr. King’s legacy of justice and equality”. Visit parks.ca.gov/MLKDay2026

In 1977, US President Jimmy Carter posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to King. The citation read:

Martin Luther King Jr. was the conscience of his generation. He gazed upon the great wall of segregation and saw that the power of love could bring it down. From the pain and exhaustion of his fight to fulfill the promises of our founding fathers for our humblest citizens, he wrung his eloquent statement of his dream for America. He made our nation stronger because he made it better. His dream sustains us yet.

Martin Luther King jnr. and his wife were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.

head and shoulders image of Martin Luther King jnr — Nobel Foundation, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Fiona Grahame

One response to ““He made our nation stronger because he made it better.” Martin Luther King Day”

Linda Thomas

January 19, 2026 at 1:22 pm

From the U.S.A. Thank you. I’ve shared this on my FB page. He was a hero long before we realized it. His speech hours before his assassination was chilling. And now we have at best a narcissistic, petulant, lying child as the leader of the free world. But actually he is pure evil. I do not understand how anyone could vote for him either time. Sadly I have had to terminate friendships and other relationships because if they can support him, then there is something about them that I did not know. If I had known, there never would have been any relationship to begin with. Orkney News helps keep my spirits up, my hope to continue, and strengthens me. Glad I was able to visit there on my solo road trip in 2023. I need to go back. Thank you over and over again to the news and the people of Orkney.

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