Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

So I was thinking about the upcoming holiday, and thought to myself, "Why is MLK Day in particular a holiday?" I mean, there have been many cases of people fighting for equality. People have fought for gender equality, like Susan B. Anthony, and yet she doesn't have a holiday. People have fought for religious tolerance, and yet they do not have holidays either. What made Dr. King and the message he fought for so noteworthy? Maybe it's because there are so many African-Americans in the country that his efforts touched the largest amount of people. Maybe it's because African-Americans had to overcome such a history of being mistreated, starting with slavery, then indentured servitude, then separate but equal, and then finally integration and equal rights. Maybe it's the ideal American story of fighting against the odds for something that is virtuous, right, and praiseworthy, and even though it seemed impossible, they kept on fighting, and eventually they prevailed. When I was in elementary school, I attended a school that was predominantly African-American, and I remember clearly learning an African-American spiritual in school, entitled "We Shall Overcome." The lyrics were simple, yet its message powerful: We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. Deep in my heart, I do believe, We shall overcome someday. And this is true for all of us. No matter what struggles we are facing in our own personal lives, we can overcome them, if we believe, and work to achieve our goal. Isn't that the American dream? Faith in our own potential, and working to achieve it?