University student groups want to get out the message that the civil rights movement belongs to everyone, not just blacks.
Representatives from the Asian/Pacific American Student Union, Movimiento Estudianti Chicanos de Aztlan, the Black Student Union, the African Student Association and others came together Monday to discuss the importance of working together to accomplish Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision at the “Unity Celebration: It’s Not Just a Black Thing,” part of the two-week-long MLK Celebration at the University.
“People have to sit down and just talk,” University student and speaker Alex Gonzalez said. “Through our diversity, we have power. We must take that power.”
More than ten people spoke in the EMU Fir Room about the importance of honoring King’s ideology. About fifty students attended the two-and-a-half hour event, and a number of topics were discussed — from the necessity of avoiding war in Iraq to the need for unity within minority groups.
“Coalition-building is necessary between all marginalized groups,” University Professor and keynote speaker Martin Summers said. “It’s important to mobilize in effective ways.”
Summers said minorities of color, gender, religion and financial status all face the same problems, and he added that minorities are not represented in government because of the majority’s financial stronghold.
“(King) believed in full social democracy — democracy for everybody,” Multicultural Center Program advisor Steve Morozumi said. “That doesn’t exist right now.”

Students for Peace member and University student Khanh Le said minorities will not attain freedom easily. Quoting King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Gonzalez said, “Freedom must be demanded by the oppressed.”
Summers and other speakers also said war with Iraq would go against King’s beliefs of peace and non-
aggression, and that a nation that increases military spending and cuts funding for education is headed toward disaster.
The event was preceded by a one-song performance by the University Gospel Choir. Three members of MEChA also performed some traditional “black Mexican music,” and other speakers read poetry and performed spoken word.
Afterward, students lit candles and marched to the EMU Amphitheater, singing “We Shall Overcome.” They held a vigil to voice everyone’s views of King and to bring attention to the civil rights movement, which they said is still in progress.
The MLK Celebration will conclude Wednesday with a presentation and performance by soul-singer Ron Paris in 180 PLC at 6:30 p.m.