The Illinois REALTORS® offices in Springfield and the Legal Hotline will be closed on Monday, Jan. 15 so staff members can observe the federal holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

A Baptist minister, King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his work as a civil rights activist, advocating for the end of racial segregation in the United States through nonviolent resistance. He helped organize the nonviolent protests such as the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and the 1963 March on Washington. At the March on Washington, he delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech.

King was born Jan. 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Ga., and was assassinated April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tenn.

Several years after his death, a national holiday was created to honor him. In 1986, the holiday was first observed.