With Martin Luther King day coming up, it’s a good time to take time to remember a man who’s words touched lives and changed minds. Martin Luther King Jr. was a baptist minister who played an important role in the American civil rights movement.

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.