MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. BIRTHDAY
Profile America — Monday, January 18 — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 87 years old this year. The civil rights leader, minister, and recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize was born in 1929 and assassinated in 1968.
Today is the national holiday, honoring his memory and life’s work, appropriate in a month that also sees the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
America’s diverse population of some 319 million enjoys the civil rights Dr. King advocated, including around 254 million whites, nearly 46 million African-Americans, about 1.5 million Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, 20 million Asians, and 5.4 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. Just over 55 million people in the U.S. population are of Hispanic origin.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau.
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