There’s no school on Monday, but why is that?

The third Monday of January will mark the 33rd year we celebrate the life and achievements of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

King was a social activist and Baptist minister who had played a big role in the civil rights movement. He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Congressional Gold Medal and many more.

But what did he do and what was his role in the civil rights movement?

King grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, where he attended school and lived there until he graduated college. King graduated college with a degree in sociology and studied medicine and law. He had met and married his wife, Coretta Scott, in 1953.

King was notorious for leading the bus boycott after the arrest of Rosa Parks. Parks choose to not give her seat up to a white person leading to her arrest. King was chosen as the protest leader and the protest lasted a little over a year.

Soon the Supreme Court had ruled segregation on public transportation illegal, leading to a small milestone for civil rights and the rise of King’s fame.

In 1963 King had organized a March on Washington that would later become a gigantic turning point for the civil rights movement — 200,000-300,000 people showed up in front of the Lincoln Memorial to hear King’s famous “I Have a Dream’ speech.

The march and speech was a big factor in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Later that year King was named Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” and went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.

In 1968 King was fatally shot on his motel balcony in Nashville, Tennessee, while attending a strike. Days following riots were caused all over the US and President Johnson had declared a national day of mourning.

A bill was signed by Ronald Reagan marking MLK day a federal holiday.