MLK Weekend in the Virgin Islands
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Ahoy! And welcome aboard! Did you know that the USVI began celebrating MLK Day in 1969, one year after the passing of the famed civil rights leader and fourteen years before it became a national holiday?
It’s true! Wanting to honor the Rev. Dr. King’s work and commitment to equality for all, the people and legislature of the Virgin Islands established a holiday in the civil rights leader’s honor long before it was even a thought in the mainland.
While King’s actual birthday is January 15th, the holiday is currently celebrated on the third Monday of January. Closures for the day across the United States include banks, government offices, and postal service, but in the Virgin Islands the closures extend to schools, church offices, public transportation and many businesses. Before Covid, the islands traditionally marked the holiday with numerous parades, speeches, music performances, peaceful walks and prayer services.
Look for these 2026 Celebrations
The Martin Luther King Jr Memorial High School Basketball Tournament – This annual event at the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School’s Digna Wheatley Gymnasium on St. Thomas. New this year, the tournament is open to teams from not only the US Virgin Islands but also to teams from the British Virgin Islands and from Puerto Rico. In total, there will be eight varsity boys teams and eight varsity girls teams competing.
The MLK Regatta – Sponsored by the St Thomas Yacht Club, this regatta has been on-going since 1996 and proves to be a celebratory kick-off to the winter and spring competitive racing schedule. Races take place in Cowpet Bay, Great Bay and Jersey Bay.
A Day of Service/ Day of Giving – While no official campaigns are underway, communities throughout the islands encourage visitors and citizens alike to consider donating time or resources to local charities and non-profits as a way to pay tribute to a man who fully encouraged everyone to do their part to make society better and kinder.
How Did We Get Here?
While the Virgin islands have celebrated MLK Day for decades, the tradition was slow to take hold in the states. Labor unions were some of the first to float the idea of a paid holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., who often spoke on behalf of workers and their rights, but the idea never got much traction until US Representative John Conyers (Dem. from Michigan) and US Senator Edward Brooke (Rep. from Massachusetts) introduced a bill in Congress for the national holiday.
The first vote in 1979 fell five votes short. The King Center then turned to corporations and citizens for help to gather more momentum. Following Stevie Wonder’s release of the single “Happy Birthday” to popularize the campaign in 1980 and his hosting of the Rally for Peace Press Conference in 1981, some six million people signed a petition to push for the national holiday.
Although President Ronald Reagan originally opposed the idea, he eventually signed a bill into law, proposed by Representative Katie Hall of Indianna, to create a federal holiday honoring King on November 2, 1983. (Though it would be three years before the law took effect.) Regrettably, not every state chose to observe the January holiday. Some, like New Hampshire, chose to rename the holiday “Civil Right Day” and in several southern states, the holiday was combined with Robert E. Lee’s birthday.
Eventually, all 50 states recognized the national holiday with South Carolina being the last to make it an official state holiday on May 2, 2000. It was former US Senator Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania and former Atlanta Congressman John Lewis, who co-authored the King Holiday and Service Act, transforming the holiday into a day of volunteer service benefiting communities and non-profits around the country, including those in US Territories like the Virgin Islands.
A Life Well Lived
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. His first name was actually Michael, but he later had his name changed to Martin. Both his father and grandfather were pastors at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Dr. King also served as a co-pastor.
Martin Luther attended a segregated public school in Atlanta and graduated at age 15. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 and attended three years at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He received his Doctorate in 1951 from Boston University, and while in Boston, he met and married Coretta Scott.
In 1954, Dr. King became pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, while also being a strong campaigner for civil rights. In December 1955, he accepted a leadership role in the nonviolent bus boycott that lasted 382 days and ended after the US Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses. During the boycott, King was arrested, subjected to abuse, and his home was bombed. His determination to proceed without relying on violence, catapulted him to national prominence.
Between 1957 and 1968, Dr. King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times and met with two US Presidents. He wrote five books, led massive protests to call attention to injustice, and campaigned for the registration of black voters. Although arrested more than 20 times, he never gave in to defeat and in 1963, he was named Man of the Year by Time magazine. At age 35, he received the Nobel Peace Prize and turned over his prize money of $54,123 to support the civil rights movement.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, his life came to a tragic end. As he stood on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was planning to lead a protest march on behalf of striking garbage workers, an assassin’s bullet struck and killed him.
Although King’s efforts for “equality for all” were heroic and powerful, his legacy requires constant attention and intention to become a reality. MLK Day is the perfect time to reflect and assess how each of us as individuals can make our communities, our country and the world kinder, more connected, and fairer to all.
Consider Donating Time or Resources
If you’d like to become more involved, consider looking into community organizations that welcome donations of time and/ or resources. Here are a few that routinely provide assistance to the Virgin Island communities:
- My Brother’s Workshop – provides hope, faith, and purpose to at-risk people in the Virgin Islands
- St. Thomas Historical Trust – protects and preserves the historical culture of St. Thomas
- Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park – official philanthropic partner of the Virgin Islands National Park
- St. John Rescue – all-volunteer organization dedicated to saving lives, providing community education, and a better way of life for the people of St. John
- Animal Care Center of St. John – dedicated to the well-being and care of homeless, neglected and abused island animals
- Women’s Coalition of St. Croix – to support and empower people impacted by violence
- Family resource Center of St. Thomas – counseling programs and shelter for victims of domestic abuse