In 1965, The Beatles were the biggest band in the world, a different Romney was governor of Michigan and Martin Luther King Jr. launched the All University Student Government-sponsored Student Education Program, or STEP, at MSU.
STEP was the first all student-administered educational outreach program of its kind in the country. For Robert Green, having students of all races approach him at MSU to create the outreach program inspired him.
“MSU students have had a history of involvement in social justice,” Green said.
Green is a dean and professor emeritus at MSU and is an expert on education reform and urban redevelopment. He said the outreach program needed to raise money in order to get student and faculty down to the south to volunteer.
The project eventually morphed into Summer Tutorial Education Project, which lasted until 1968.
King was informed of MSU’s money predicament by Green, so King agreed to help launch the project and speak at MSU to raise funds. He filled MSU’s Fairchild Theatre and addressed approximately 4,000 students in hopes to raise money and garner more volunteers.
The STEP program sent students and faculty to Rust College of Holly Springs, Miss. to help enhance learning for students in elementary and secondary school while assisting college faculty with seminars. The program was conducted during the summers of 1966-68.
Green said he recalled a time while at Rust College with STEP volunteers when a group of them went to the public library with hopes to check out books, but Green said at that time in Mississippi, it was illegal for black people to use the public library.
“Michigan State has always had a student body, some white, some black, who were believers in social justice,” Green said.
Green said every student who went down to Mississippi, which Green described as the most punitive state towards blacks during that time taking a risk with his or her life.
“It showed that white students on major college campuses who cared not only about social justice in the south but in East Lansing,” Green said.
Green said the white students who went down to Rust College through STEP and other programs were targeted just as much their black peers and were called taunting names.
Green said the importance of this program is not measurable because of how many people saw the faces of these students fighting for social justice at a time when it was not popular or safe.
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“When you stand up against oppression, there are those who will support and let you stand up for injustice,” he said.
