Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday in the United States marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year. Born in 1929, King's actual birthday is January 15. The holiday is similar to holidays set under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The earliest Monday for this holiday is January 15 and the latest is January 21.
Henry John Heinz III was an American businessman and Republican politician from Pennsylvania. Heinz represented the Pittsburgh suburbs in the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 and represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1977 until he was killed in a plane crash in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, in 1991.
Racial equality occurs when institutions give equal opportunities to people of all races. In other words, regardless of physical traits such as skin color, institutions are to give individuals legal, moral, and political equality. In present-day Western society, diversity and integration among races continues to become normative. Prior to the early 1950s, attaining equality was difficult for African, Asian, and Amerindian people, especially in schools. However, in the United States and in many other countries, racial equality has gone on to become a law and principle stating that regardless of what race an individual is, they will receive equal opportunities in treatment, education, employment, and politics.
Horace Julian Bond was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1971, he helped found the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, and served as its first president for nearly a decade.
Harris Llewellyn Wofford Jr. was an American attorney, civil rights activist, and Democratic Party politician who represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1991 to 1995. A noted advocate of national service and volunteering, Wofford was also the fifth president of Bryn Mawr College from 1970 to 1978, served as chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party in 1986 and as Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor and Industry in the cabinet of Governor Robert P. Casey from 1987 to 1991, and was a surrogate for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. He introduced Obama in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center before Obama's speech on race in America, "A More Perfect Union".
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City.
The Barristers' Association of Philadelphia, Incorporated is a minority bar association located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which represents African-American attorneys. The association was established in 1950. The Barristers' Association of Philadelphia is an affiliate of the National Bar Association. One notable member of the Barristers is John F. Street, the former Mayor of Philadelphia. The purpose of the Barristers is to address the professional needs and development of Black lawyers in the City of Philadelphia through programs such as seminars, cultural events and publications.
Aloysius Leon Higginbotham Jr. was an American civil rights advocate, historian, presidential adviser, and federal court judge. From 1990 to 1991, he served as Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Originally nominated to the bench by President Kennedy in 1963, Higginbotham was the seventh African-American Article III judge appointed in the United States, and the first African-American United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He was elevated to the Third Circuit in 1977, serving as a federal judge for nearly 30 years in all. In 1995, President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Higginbotham used the name "Leon" informally.
Fred David Gray is a civil rights attorney, preacher and activist who practices law in Alabama. He litigated several major civil rights cases in Alabama, including some, such as Browder v. Gayle, that reached the United States Supreme Court for rulings. He served as the President of the National Bar Association in 1985, and in 2001 was elected as the first African-American President of the Alabama State Bar.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, formerly called the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, is an umbrella group of American civil rights interest groups.
Tony J. Payton Jr. is a former Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 179th legislative district encompassing the historic communities of Frankford, Oxford Circle, Hunting Park, Olney and Feltonville. He was elected in 2006. and sworn into his first term on January 2, 2007. He is now a registered lobbyist with Malady & Wooten, LLP.
Benjamin Todd Jealous is an American civil rights leader and social impact investor. He served as the president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 2008 to 2013. When he was selected to head the NAACP at age 35, he became the organization's youngest-ever national leader. The Washington Post in 2013 described him as "one of the nation's most prominent civil rights leaders."
Blank Rome is an Am Law 100 firm with 14 offices and more than 600 attorneys and principals who provide legal and advocacy services to clients in the United States and around the world.
John F. White Jr. is an American executive and former public servant and politician. White is a former Pennsylvania State Secretary of Welfare, Federal Housing Director, Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Philadelphia City Councilman.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey and Ida B. Wells. Leaders of the organization include Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins.
White and Williams LLP is a law firm, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded in 1899 by Thomas Raeburn White. White and Williams currently has approximately 225 lawyers and serves clients from nine offices located throughout Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
JoAnne A. Epps is an American law professor, legal author, and Executive Vice President and Provost of Temple University. Epps' primary areas of expertise include criminal procedure, evidence and trial advocacy. She teaches Litigation Basics, a required course for first-year law students at Temple. Named by National Jurist as one of the 25 most influential leaders in legal education, her commitment to curricular innovation and experiential legal education inspired the creation of the Stephen and Sandra Sheller Center for Social Justice at Temple Law School, which introduces students to the many roles that lawyers can play in securing access to civil justice. She has trained Sudanese lawyers representing victims of the Darfur crisis, and taught prosecutors for the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Julie Story Byerley is an American physician who is known as a leader in the fields of medical education and pediatrics. Byerley is a clinical professor and Vice Dean for Education for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
Opportunities Industrialization Center is a nonprofit adult education and job training organization headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with offices located in New Haven, CT, Washington, D.C. and Burma Camp, Accra, Ghana.
Mary Gay Scanlon is an American attorney and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she has represented Pennsylvania's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives since 2019. The district is based in Delaware County, a mostly suburban county, and also includes parts of South and Southwest Philadelphia and small portions of Chester and Montgomery counties. Scanlon spent the final two months of 2018 as the member for Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district. She was elected to both positions on November 6, 2018. That day, she ran in a special election in the old 7th to serve out the term of her predecessor, Pat Meehan, and in a regular election for a full two-year term in the new 5th. She was sworn in as the member for the 7th on November 13, 2018, and transferred to the 5th on January 3, 2019.
