How Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a federal holiday

• A bill proposing a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. was first introduced in 1968.
• It became a federal holiday in 1983 when then-President Ronald Reagan first signed a bill into law.
• But it took nearly two decades for all 50 states to observe the day.

Martin Luther King Jr. is the most decorated civil rights icon in American history. But it took more than a decade after he died for the country to celebrate him with a national holiday.