Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, The nation pauses Monday to remember the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights icon who would have turned 83 this year had a bullet not cut short his life.

President Barack Obama will mark the holiday with a service project at the Browne Education Campus in Washington on Monday morning, and the first couple will attend the Let Freedom Ring Celebration at the Kennedy Center on Monday evening.

.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to speak at the King Day at the Dome rally in South Carolina on Monday, according to organizers of the event. The event will “commemorate Dr. King’s life, draw attention to economic and educational equalities in the state, and protest the Confederate battle flag flying in front of the (state capitol) building,” organizers said.

A federal holiday to honor King, who was assassinated in April 1968, was first observed in 1986. In 1994, Congress also designated it a national day of service.

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On Sunday, park rangers placed wreaths at the Washington memorial honoring the civil rights leader. Members of King’s family stood beside the towering 30-foot statue of him as crowds sang “Happy Birthday” at a ceremony.

“We’re celebrating the best of what we are, but also what we must become, knowing that we’ve not arrived there yet,” Martin Luther King III said.

On the civil rights leader’s birthday — January 15, 1968 — Martin Luther King Jr. was planning a “poor people’s campaign” to bring together Americans from all walks of life to demand “decent jobs with decent pay,” his son said.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Although he was assassinated more than four decades ago, the nonviolent movement supported by slain civil rights leader, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., continues to have a profound impact on life in America,

“I have followed, and have been a part of the NAACP through my entire adult life,” Ellis Ray Williams, 90, of Welch said. Williams served in combat during World War II, and survived the Battle of the Bulge. When he returned home, he became an educator in McDowell County and served as principal of the vocational school that served African American students in the McDowell County public school system.

“Of course, I followed Dr. King’s career,” Williams said. “He was such a stirring speaker and a representative, not only of black people, but a representative of people of all races. I’ve been from one end of this country to the other, and can say that our minds were changed by the message Dr. King carried.”

Delegate John Frazier, D-Mercer, was serving in the U.S. Army and stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas on April 4, 1968 when Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.

“The entire base was put on alert,” Frazier said. “There was a fear that rioting might break out in the city, and I think that’s why we were on alert, although I don’t know what I could have done. All I had then was a typewriter.”

Frazier saw the profound impact that King’s death had on several of the black soldiers he was serving with. “I had grown up with young people whose parents were active in the civil rights movement,” Frazier said. “I knew that Martin Luther King had a great impact in the lives of many people. I think it’s great that we have a day set aside to remember him and celebrate his life.”

Dr. Tom Blevins, interim president of Bluefield State College, was a student when King died, and he studied his philosophy as a student would. “As a student, I looked to the philosophies of Dr. King and Bertrand Russell,” Blevins said. “Their words are so profound. In their own way, each has moved mountains.”