On the third Monday of every January the federal government shuts down for the day to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s one of Northeast Delta Dental’s paid core holidays.
While serving as pastor of a Baptist church in Montgomery Alabama, Dr. King emerged as a Black leader in 1955 by organizing a bus boycott lasting 382 days. The boycott resulted in laws requiring segregation on buses to be declared unconstitutional. In 1957, he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which provided leadership to the civil rights movement. He overcame countless obstacles to his work of advocating nonviolent methods of protesting against racial inequality. He traveled extensively and gave thousands of speeches. He planned rallies, like the 1963 Washington D.C. rally of 250,000 people who heard him deliver his “I Have a Dream” address. He was a prolific author of books and articles. His advocacy for human rights and social justice resulted in his being recognized as a national and world figure. In 1964, at age 35, Martin Luther King, Jr., was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, at that time the youngest recipient to have been so honored.
The path to Martin Luther King Day becoming a national holiday was a long and arduous one. It began four days after his assassination in 1968. Even though Dr. King’s work was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, legislation to honor him languished but was reintroduced annually. It wasn’t until 1983 that President Ronald Reagan signed a bill making the third Monday in January a federal holiday in observance of Dr. King’s civil rights legacy. It took 17 more years before all fifty states made it a state government holiday.
Among the intriguing pieces of information offered by the National Museum of African History & Culture, I learned that Martin Luther King Day is the only federal holiday designated by Congress as a National Day of Service to encourage all Americans to volunteer and improve their communities. In keeping with our corporate vision, Northeast Delta Dental has several programs that encourage our employees to volunteer and make personal investments in their communities.
More opportunities to recognize and celebrate the contributions of Black Americans are offered during Black History Month, celebrated annually in February. Last year I wrote a blog post on that topic. This year, The Association for the Study of African American Life and History chose African Americans and Labor as its 2025 Black History Month theme, because so many inequities center around economic injustices.
Each of us must find our own path to countering inequities. Our DEI principles guide us as we fund programs that empower marginalized people groups. Because we believe that everyone deserves a healthy smile, we award grants to programs and initiatives in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont that increase access to dental care, helping to break down barriers to care that some people experience. Nationally, we and other Delta Dental companies also award funds to organizations encouraging school-aged children from historically underrepresented groups to pursue a career in oral health to increase ethnic diversity among dental professionals.
Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month offer an opportunity to honor Black Americans and affords us a variety of occasions to shine a spotlight on ways that Black Americans have shaped our nation.