Michigan schools had the day off to celebrate the memory of Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan 18, 2016. MLK Day’s about bringing people together, and remembering the non-violent way one man was able to bring the nation together. Not only telling his dream for the nation, but also leading a nonviolent march putting his life on the line for equality and freedom.

When publicly celebrating King’s Birthday, people hit up social media to take part in special events happening across the site. One example is Twitter, which had a special #MLKday dedicated to King. Twitter’s form of celebration was tweeting famous quotes from Dr. King’s speeches. Another example of a social media that recognized MLK day was Facebook. To celebrate, the media had inspirational quotes as well as posting of videos, and pictures of king.

This year, The state of North Carolina has chosen to help students in lower income school districts by spending more money towards a better education to honor King. The majority of students in North Carolina’s poorer districts are African American. The state also lowered the confederate flag which has flown over the capitals Dome for over 50 years, also as a recognition on MLK day.

North Carolina’s choice to help students in lower income districts was one way the holiday was celebrated, but there are many ways others can show their recognition for the special day.

Black Lives Matter protesters in San Francisco shut down the Bay Bridge for Martin Luther King Day. Black Lives Matter is an activist group of people who are towards finding justice for extrajudicial killings by police of African American people. They had created a barrier of five people, by chaining themselves to their cars along a five landed west-bound, they successfully blocked traffic for around 30 minutes. The protesters had claimed this act was to reclaim MLK’s legacy.

On MLK day FHS had the day off, the day of return there was nothing spoken about the holiday. The holiday was treated like a normal snow day, nothing else was done to recognize the civil right leader’s day. The celebration of King is meant to remember how he fought for equality and freedom for everyone in nonviolent ways, through his march, boycotting bus usage, and speeches for the nation.