Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 101 Part 3.djvu/764

 101 STAT. 2062

PROCLAMATION 5597—JAN. 9, 1987

NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning January 4, 1987, as National Bowling Week. I call upon the people of the United States to observe that week with appropriate observances and activities. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh. RONALD REAGAN

Proclamation 5597 of January 9, 1987

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Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, 1987 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation In celebrating the birthday of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we honor an American who recognized the great injustice of segregation and discrimination, and made it his life's purpose and toil to right those wrongs in favor of justice, freedom, equality, fairness, and reconciliation. Because Dr. King eschewed violence, relying instead on his eloquence and the moral force of his convictions, the cause he led changed not only laws but hearts and minds as well. He braved imprisonment, violence, and threats because, as he said, "History has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive." Martin Luther King, Jr., fell victim to the violence he fought so fervently—but his nonviolent quest had already altered our land irrevocably and for the better. Dr. King's vision, as he said so often, was the fulfillment of the American dream. He explained this to the graduates of Lincoln University in 1961 when he quoted our Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" and said, simply, "This is the dream." Dr. King emphasized that this dream excludes no one from its promise and protection and that it affirms that every individual's rights are God-given and "neither conferred by nor derived from the state." Martin Luther King, Jr., also expressed his vision in the eternal calls for justice, forgiveness, brotherhood, and love of neighbor recorded in Holy Writ. He frequently prayed, in the words of the prophet Amos, "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Dr. King also appealed clearly and compellingly through moving accounts such as his description of a little girl marching with her mother who answered a policeman's question, "What do you want?" by replying, "Freedom." Said Dr. King, "She could not even pronounce the word, but no Gabriel trumpet could have sounded a truer note." Every American knows the story of Dr. King's last sermon, given April 3, 1968, the night before his death. He said, expressing his credo, that he

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