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Americans are honoring the memory of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. today with a federal holiday marking his birthday, an observance that coincides with the second inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Pleasanton government offices are closed today, along with county, state and federal offices.

The Tri-Valley Y will honor Dr. King at a Fellowship Breakfast next Monday, Jan. 28. Pleasanton Police Chief Dave Spiller will be the guest speaker at the event, which will start at 7:30 a.m. in the Pleasanton Hilton Hotel.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January, although Dr. King was actually born on the 15th of January 1929, 84 years ago. The very first national celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was on Jan. 20, 1986.

King was a Baptist preacher who fought discrimination and racism in the 1950s and 1960s, mainly in the southern U.S., where blacks were subjected to unequal treatment in society and at times the target of violence.

King, an advocate for non-violent protests, was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39. There is now a monument in his honor in Washington.

King gained prominence after leading a successful protest against segregation on the buses in Montgomery, Ala. Under that system, blacks were required to sit in the back of the bus and, if the vehicle was full, they had to give up their seats to white people.

The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 made segregation illegal. That same year King won the Nobel Peace Prize.

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