Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Rally
The teachings of love & justice from the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be carried forward by the next generation of young Lincolnites this Sunday, Jan. 19, with the 30th annual MLK Jr. Youth Rally.
The event will again be hosted at University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s City Campus Student Union (14th and “R” Street), 2nd floor Centennial Room. Doors will open at 4 p.m. with a socializing hour, followed by a program from 5:00-6:15 p.m. and further social organizing until 7 p.m.
The Rally is organized by a diverse group of Lincoln elementary, middle, and high school students. It is held in conjunction with the national recognition of the birthday of King.
“It’s an opportunity to recognize and honor the life, dreams, and more of the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, but also local civil rights leader Dr. Leola Bullock,” said Peter Ferguson, the 28-year lead advisor for the Rally. Bullock, a Lincoln native who passed away in 2010, served as the president of the NAACP Lincoln Branch, and helped establish the annual Youth Rally & March.
“Our purpose is to promote those dreams, which wasn’t just one dream at the March on Washington… It’s a dream of a beloved community, a dream of action towards kindness, walking together towards civility, justice and love,” Ferguson added. “The scholars do that through the promotion of positive youth action… A lot of what happened, a lot of what was put forward by these civil rights leaders, a lot of the action we must take today is on the shoulders of young people.”
The Rally will also be live-streamed virtually. A pre-recording program will begin at 4:30 p.m. and carry through the main program. The broadcast can be accessed via the LNKTV Education website, LNKTV YouTube, and the City of Lincoln Facebook Page. The Rally will also be available on Lincoln (NE) Cable Access Channels • ALLO 23 • CHARTER SPECTRUM 1303
The theme of this year’s Rally is ‘Subscribe: A Walk Together In Love.′ It will feature music, original works, and adapted works from scholars of the Belmont Community Center.
“This isn’t a sit and get. Attendees will be saying ‘Good morning,’ they’ll be saying ‘That’s what I’m talking about!’ they’ll be clapping and standing up with a community choir,” Ferguson teased. “We’ve been in touch with figures who lived in the civil rights movement, our scholars will get to hear from those who walked with Dr. King.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Ferguson says the same parts of Dr. King’s message which resonated with young people in his day, continue to resonate with the youth of today.
“It’s the steps that Dr. King took. It’s the steps Shirley Chisholm took. It’s the steps Claudette Colvin took… The same messages that took place then, they’re resonating here in 2025. The delivery might be different today, but its the same steps to form an community of individuals that walk together,” he said.
When asked about a possible sense of pessimism held by young people today, Ferguson said, from his view, “(Young people) recognize the opportunities before them.”
“They realize that they can have doubts, they can be disappointed, they can be upset, but they cannot do a disservice to the contributions, sacrifices, and investments which those that came before them have given. So dispute the struggle, they draw back on the hope and the seeds that were planted for them… it’s not fair that they have to shoulder these burdens. But the cool part is about young people is they know that is their purpose,” he said.
“When that purpose goes away, that’s when we really need to be concerned. It’s not a pessimism, it’s their belief that they have a purpose. Not only for today, we had it yesterday and we’re going to have it tomorrow.”
A re-run, hour-long edited program of this year’s Rally will be streamed after the Rally, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, from 11 a.m. to Noon. Ferguson says this program is intended for classroom or workplace learning experiences. This broadcast offers bite-sized educational components, interactive lesson plans, and discussion prompts that support social-emotional learning, character-building, and social justice.
For more information, visit mlkyouthrally.com.