Tuesday Open Line


Dr. Martin Luther King would be 84 years old today. The civil rights leader, minister, and recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize was born in 1929 and assassinated in 1968. Next Monday is a national holiday, honoring his memory and life’s work, appropriate in a month that also sees the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. America’s diverse population of some 308 million enjoys the civil rights Dr. King advocated, including 224 million whites, more than 42 million African-Americans, over 14.5 million Asians and about 3 million American Indians and Alaska natives. Just over 50 million of the U.S. population is of Hispanic origin. Profile America is in its 16th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.