The SGI-USA Taiko Youth perform during the 28th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration at the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Auditorium on Monday, January 20, 2014. The multiethnic, interfaith program included inspirational readings, music and presentations of scholarships. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first celebrated as a federal holiday in 1986 under a law signed by then-President Ronald Reagan. King and George Washington are the only Americans with federal holidays celebrating their birth. King was the chief spokesman for nonviolent activism in the civil rights movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. He was assassinated in 1968.
