Civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers a speech to a crowd on October 16, 1965 in New York City, New York. Michael Ochs Archives | Getty Images

When the late Rep. Katie Hall (D-Ind.) went to Congress in 1982, it was to finish the term of Adam Benjamin Jr., the Northwest Indiana congressman who had died suddenly of a heart attack. But Hall, the first African American to represent Indiana in Congress, also had another goal: She wanted to add her name to the fight to make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday. On Nov. 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed into law HR3706, the King holiday bill written and introduced by Hall. Beginning in 1986, Martin Luther King Day — the first federal holiday honoring an African American — would be observed on the third Monday in January. King's birthday is Jan. 15. "My mother was grateful for being the instrument God used to honor Dr. King with a national holiday," said attorney Junifer Hall, founder and CEO of the Katie Hall Educational Foundation in Gary, Ind. "As a very poor farm girl growing up in segregated Mississippi in the 1940s and '50s, my mother never dreamed that she would have the chance to serve as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives." Since that bill signing 35 years ago, the King holiday has evolved. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed a law designating it a National Day of Service. By 2000, all 50 states recognized it as well. South Carolina and New Hampshire were the last holdouts.

A rough journey

"When King was assassinated in April 1968, he had become a polarizing figure to the political establishment—and even within activist circles—due to his criticism of U.S. imperialism and specifically the Vietnam War," said Karlos Hill, PhD, associate professor of African and African-American Studies at the University of Oklahoma. "King's 'fall from grace' is the primary context for understanding why there was (more than a decade of) resistance to naming a federal holiday in his honor." Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers introduced the first bill for a King holiday in 1968, four days after the civil rights leader was assassinated. The effort languished for years. More from USA Today: Iran rejects Trump's call to renegotiate terms of nuclear deal In mud-battered Montecito, back-to-back disasters 'overwhelming' President Trump: 'I am not a racist' "Conyers would persist year after year, Congress after Congress, in introducing the same bill again and again, gathering cosponsors along the way, until his persistence finally paid off . . . when (Reagan) signed the King Holiday bill into law," wrote congressional scholar Donald Wolfensberger in his essay, The Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday: The Long Struggle in Congress. Support for the King holiday gained traction in 1979 when Coretta Scott King, King's widow and president of the King Center in Atlanta, testified during several congressional hearings. She urged Conyers to reintroduce his legislation for a vote in the House of Representatives. President Jimmy Carter urged Congress to support the measure, according to Wolfensberger. In 1980 Stevie Wonder got behind the holiday effort, artistically and financially. That summer he released Happy Birthday, which helped galvanize support for a holiday. Wonder's support "helped to create a sustained dialogue about the merits of honoring Dr. King's legacy," said Hill. The pop star's support made the King holiday "a cause célèbre."

Family affair