Today, having a day off from classes at Lipscomb University for Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a given. But that has not always been the case. The first MLK Day in the U.S. was celebrated on Jan. 20, 1986, after President Ronald Reagan signed it into law in November 1983. Fourteen years after 1986, Lipscomb University joined in. When the recognition of the holiday was announced, student Matt Kirby, then editor-in-chief of Lipscomb’s school paper The Babbler, wrote an opinion piece. Kirby believed that the new holiday was a step in the right direction, but that the steps should not stop there. To Kirby, simply having a day off…