Jimmy Carter Honors Martin Luther King Jr. In 1979, President Carter and his wife Rosalyn observed King’s birthday at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where King had been pastor. Carter pushed to establish King’s birthday as a national holiday, but Congress did not enact such a law until 1983. With the Carters are Martin Luther King Sr.; Andrey Young, Carter’s ambassador to the United Nations; and King’s widow Coretta Scott King. Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.