January is the first month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. The first day of the month is known as New Year's Day. It is, on average, the coldest month of the year within most of the Northern Hemisphere and the warmest month of the year within most of the Southern Hemisphere. In the Southern hemisphere, January is the seasonal equivalent of July in the Northern hemisphere and vice versa.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday in the United States observed on the third Monday of January each year. King was chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial discrimination in federal and state law and civil society. The movement led to several groundbreaking legislative reforms in the United States.
Confederate Memorial Day is a holiday observed in several Southern U.S. states on various dates since the end of the American Civil War. The holiday was originally publicly presented as a day to remember the estimated 258,000 Confederate soldiers who died during the American Civil War.
National holidays in the United States are 11 calendar dates designated by the U.S. federal government as official holidays. On these days non-essential national offices are closed although the employees receive pay.
In the United States, public holidays are set by federal, state, and local governments and are often observed by closing government offices or giving government employees paid time off. The federal government does not require any private business to close or offer paid time off, as is the case for most state local governments, so employers determine which holidays to observe.
Lee–Jackson–King Day was a holiday celebrated in the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1984 to 2000 as a combination of Lee–Jackson Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Beginning in 2000 the state observed them as two distinct holidays.
Lee–Jackson Day was a state holiday in the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia, commemorating Confederate commanders, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Its observation was eliminated in 2020, replaced by Election Day as a state holiday.
Kelly Duda is an American filmmaker and activist from Arkansas best known for the 2005 documentary, Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal.
The Uniform Monday Holiday Act is an Act of Congress that moved permanently to a Monday two federal holidays in the United States — Washington's Birthday and Memorial Day — and that made Columbus Day a federal holiday, also permanently on a Monday. This created long weekends with three days off ending with the holidays, such as Memorial Day Weekend.
Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States include public displays and symbols of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Confederate leaders, or Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. Many monuments and memorials have been or will be removed under great controversy. Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, buildings, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public structures. In a December 2018 special report, Smithsonian Magazine stated, "over the past ten years, taxpayers have directed at least $40 million to Confederate monuments—statues, homes, parks, museums, libraries, and cemeteries—and to Confederate heritage organizations."
The history of the 1954 to 1968 American civil rights movement has been depicted and documented in film, song, theater, television, and the visual arts. These presentations add to and maintain cultural awareness and understanding of the goals, tactics, and accomplishments of the people who organized and participated in this nonviolent movement.
An outdoor 2007 bronze sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. by American artist Ed Dwight is installed in Hermann Park's McGovern Centennial Gardens in Houston, Texas, United States. The sculpture was vandalized with white paint in August 2017. John D. Harden, Margaret Kadifa, Mike Morris, and Brooke A. Lewis of the Houston Chronicle noted that the vandalism occurred around the same time that protesters demanded the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials in Houston, and the same day that the city's statue of Christopher Columbus was vandalized with red paint.
More than 160 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America and associated figures have been removed from public spaces in the United States, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn down by protestors.
In the United States there are a number of observed holidays where employees receive paid time off. The labor force in the United States comprises about 62% of the general population. In the United States, 97% of the private sector businesses determine what days this sector of the population gets paid time off, according to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management. The following holidays are observed by the majority of US businesses with paid time off: New Year's Day, New Year's Eve, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, the day after known as Black Friday, Christmas Eve and Christmas. There are also numerous holidays on the state and local level that are observed to varying degrees.
A United States federal statute honoring the Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and his work in the civil rights movement with a federal holiday was enacted by the 98th United States Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on November 2, 1983, creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The final vote in the House of Representatives on August 2, 1983, was 338–90 with 5 members voting present or abstaining, while the final vote in the Senate on October 19, 1983, was 78–22, both veto-proof margins.
The Martin Luther King Jr. statue is a public monument of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia. The statue, designed by Martin Dawe, was unveiled in 2017 and stands on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol, overlooking Liberty Plaza.
