Throughout all the controversy, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. still commands respect.

is accomplishments are well known. His legacy lives on through the people he strived to help the most—the young.

Most people will say courage and values should be taken directly from King’s actions during his brief stay on earth.

“Just like in a household, we learned about Jesus Christ being God—we also learned about heavenly individuals like Dr. King,” said Student Association Vice President Tanya Smith.

King’s message—his life—was devoted to everyone.

“He’s someone to emulate for everyone,” said Kelli Hinton of NIU’s Black Student Caucus. “He was fair and worked for equality for everyone, not just for black people.”

King’s public career began in 1955 in Montgomery, Ala., where he led the working black’s fight against segregation on the famed Montgomery Bus Boycott. It ended prematurely on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tenn. where he was assassinated fighting for better wages and working conditions for garbage collectors.

Born Michael Lewis King, he adopted Martin Luther in respect for the great Protestant Reformer. A native of Atlanta, King attended Booker T. Washington High School, entered Morehouse College and then the ministry in 1947.

King graduated from Morehouse in 1948 and received the B.D. degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951.

While at Crozer, King earned the Pearl Plafkner Prize for excellence in scholarship and was elected student body president. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Boston University in 1955.

King continued to educate through his works. As leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King gave all he could to the needy.

When honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he gave the $54,000 to the SCLC. His earnings from speeches and writings went to civil rights groups. His estate was appraised at about $5,000 after his assassination.

James Earl Ray was convicted of shooting King in Memphis, sparking scores of people to protests and violence.

Unfortunately, King knew what violence was and hated it. He was a target throughout his public life. His home was bombed and shot at. He was beaten and stabbed and stoned. He sat in a jail cell more than 30 times.

And remarkably, he still believed and held onto his dream.

He explained it this way while waiting behind the bars in a Birmingham jail: “…when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers … down your sisters and brothers; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters … when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of ‘nobodyness’—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”

It is difficult to wait, especially at NIU.

“I don’t want to say that everything is fine and happy, because it is not,” Smith said. NIU students must commit themselves to open their eyes and see “another perspective,” she said. “Then, I think things can only get better.”

But it’s going to take a lot more than making people aware of the problems, Hinton said.

“I think that it has to start at home,” Hinton said. Race relations are improving, but much more is needed, she said.

One thing needed is more positive stories about blacks in newspapers, especially The Northern Star, she said.

Newspapers reporting on the negatives of blacks helps foster and promote negative stereotypes, she said. “It’s just a matter of printing more positive than negative things.”

Black organizations “should get together and be more united” to help fight racism, Hinton said.

“We have to do more than call an incident racist,” Smith said. “Racism is still here, but we all have to be committed to change. There is racism on both sides of the line.”