Manhattan honors MLK 39 years later
Story by Jamie Oberg
6 p.m. Friday, January 19, 2007
Martin Luther King Junior made his last campus speech at Kansas State University, 39 years ago Friday.
"It’s a little cold but we look passed that because he's done a lot more for us," KSU junior Raziya Marks said. “If he didn’t come on days when it was cold or when he was getting beaten, we wouldn’t be able to be here today."
More than 300 community members and students honored King with a memorial walk from 17th and Yuma to Ahearn Field House. Inside, the public honored King's sacrifice.
81-year-old Arlene Cole was nine months pregnant when she saw King at K-State in 1968. She said being pregnant, she didn’t want to leave the house, but she said she wouldn’t have missed the civil rights leader for the world.
“I enjoyed it, and afterwards they invited us over to the Union and we had lunch with him,” Cole said.
39 years later, Cole wouldn’t miss the memorial ceremonies either.
“I'm so glad to be here in the beginning and the end, and at this celebration,” Cole said. “I'm just filled up; I’m just happy, glad."
K-State students not alive during segregation say his dream will live on for generations to come.
“It means a lot to me. It means that there's hope for everybody that doesn't have the same opportunity that have reached everyone else,” KSU sophomore Miguel Viruete said.
A stretch of 17th Street was also renamed as Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Drive.
Following the ceremony, a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. was unveiled in front of Ahearn Field House.
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