Remember students: no classes will be held on Monday, Jan. 21, in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on Jan. 15, 1929. King attended segregated public schools until he graduated at the young age of 15. He graduated in 1948 from Morehouse College, an all African-American college, where he received his B.A. in sociology and was rewarded with a Bachelor of Divinity degree as well. King then went on to Harvard and received his Ph.D. in philosophy, which he received in 1955.

Just a year before his graduation from Harvard, King became a pastor of a church in Montgomery, Alabama. Well on his way to changing the course of his race, he was already fighting for his people by being on the executive committee for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1955, he lead a boycott of buses which lasted 382 days, because of which congress allowed African-Americans and Whites to ride the bus as equals.

In 1957, he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was formed to spearhead the civil rights movement. Between the years of 1957 and 1968, King traveled all over the world speaking about civil rights wherever there was injustice, and also wrote several books and articles. He led a revolutionary mass protest in Birmingham, Alabama, wrote his “I Have a Dream” speech and Time magazine named him Man of the Year.

On April 4, 1968, at the age of 39, King was assassinated. He was preparing to lead a protest march with city garbage workers in Memphis, Tennessee.

In his short 39 years of life, King changed the course of many races and set the pace for future equality between all people, not just his own. A remarkable man, King changed the lives of millions of people and for many generations to come, he will forever be remembered for his dedication and perseverance.