Martin Luther King (file photo)

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- People across the United States marked the Martin Luther King Day on Monday, with President George W. Bush calling the late civil rights leader "one of America's most important lives."

    "At the dawn of this new century, America can be proud of the progress we have made toward equality, but we all must recognize we have more to do," Bush said during a celebration at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

    He said the reason to honor King was to remember his strength of character and his leadership, and to remember the remaining work.

    "We recommit ourselves to working for the dream that Martin Luther King gave his life for an America where the dignity of every person is respected; where people are judged not by the color of their skin - by the content of their character; and where the hope of a better tomorrow is in every neighborhood in this country," Bush said.

    Earlier in the day, Bush went to the National Archives to see the original Emancipation Proclamation, which was on display for four days to mark the holiday. The document was signed by Abraham Lincoln declaring the end of slavery in the midst of the Civil Waron Jan. 1, 1863.

    In Atlanta, Georgia, speakers at a gathering urged people Monday to continue the King's lifelong pursuit of civil rights and nonviolence, and some people criticized the Iraq war.

    Parades and rallies were organized in New Orleans of Louisiana, Little Rock of Arkansas, and South Carolina's Columbia, and thousands of volunteers marked the day in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware by offering help in a number of service projects.

    This year was the 20th anniversary of the federal holiday, which was first held on Jan. 20, 1986. King, who was shot in 1968, would have turned 77 on Sunday. Enditem