This year, the holiday falls on Monday, Jan. 20. It's a federal holiday, which means government agencies, banks and many corporate offices will closed for the day.

Celebrations of his life are already taking place throughout the country – including here on the South Shore – ahead of the holiday in his name that did not become federally observed until 1986, nearly 20 years after his 1968 assassination. Martin Luther King Jr. Day wasn't recognized as an official holiday until 2000.

Our community leaders to whom we owe a deep debt of gratitude for working hard in the face of enormous obstacles to do the right thing and fight human injustice. Folks who have brought about