It was first proposed four days after King's 1968 assassination outside a Memphis motel. It took 15 years until it became a federal holiday.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.” -- Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865.

Various communities and organizations across Central Illinois are planning to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this weekend ahead of the federal holiday honoring the late leader of the Civil Rights Movement.