MSU’s history of honoring MLK began nearly 3 decades ago

When organizers at MSU wanted to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr., they did it how he would have done it — they marched. On Jan. 15, 1980, six years before Martin Luther King Jr. Day was nationally observed, MSU students and faculty members marched through campus as a symbolic gesture for King’s birthday.

Lesser-known civil rights advocates made impact

After earning his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Alabama State University and becoming a baptist minister, Ralph Abernathy joined Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement. Abernathy was influential in the Montgomery bus boycott with King and Rosa Parks.

• Poor economy affects minority-owned businesses, student employment

• King's work in civil rights movement helps all races, cultures

• Word on the street