From Civil Rights to Human Rights

Today is the national holiday on which we commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s contributions to human rights in the United States. Though he is known in the U.S. as a civil rights leader, Dr. King's nonviolent resistance against oppression has made him a human rights icon throughout the world. His widely recited quote, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," embraced the indivisibility and universality of human rights, seen in his work for economic justice at the end of his life.