UMSL celebrates Martin Luther King Day

With music, drama and compelling orators, UM-St. Louis celebrated on Monday the life and legacy of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

However, King was not the only one commemorated. Rosa Parks, who died in October, 2005, was remembered as a civil rights hero, whose refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus sparked the bus boycott that led to a Supreme Court decision bolstering the civil rights movement.

Brandon T. Neal, deputy director of the Democratic Governors Association, said Parks exemplified agape, or unconditional love for humanity.

"She had a love for her community. She had a love for us," said Neal, who attended Parks' funeral.

Despite the gains of the civil rights movement, Neal cautioned that rascism still exists, but in less outward ways.

"Jim Crow Sr. is dead. Jim Crow Jr. is alive and well," Neal said. Education and national dialogue, he said, are vital to unify society and combat lingering vestiges of rascism in America.

Three UM-St. Louis students were given awards for their entries in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay Contest. Myron McNeil, Josalin Hunter and Jason Wendleton won first, second and third place prizes, respectively. McNeil won a $500 prize for his winning essay.

The annual King Day event, held by the Office of Equal Opportunity, also featured the St. Louis Black Repertory Theater, which performed a dramatization of Parks' life in the Montgomery bus boycott.

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