Dream Alive
On Wednesday, January 24th the former Lieutenant Governor of Colorado, Joe Rogers, came to Lake Superior State University to talk about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Mr. Rogers began by talking to the audience about who they were, and where they came from. He then invited the audience to go with him, back to the future. For the next couple of minutes, Mr. Rogers discussed slavery, and the Civil War. He talked about how the Civil War pitted brother against brother, and sister against sister. The Civil War was the bloodiest war that America has ever seen, with an American death toll higher than that of any other war that America has participated in. After the Civil War, when slavery was abolished, life was still horrible for African Americans all over the South. They couldnt eat in a restaurant, sleep in a motel, or use the same water fountains as the Whites. Even the city buses where segregated. African Americans had to sit in the back and give up their seats to white people. Mr. Rogers went on to describe Rosa Parks and her refusal to give her seat up to a white person, landing her in jail for Civil Disobedience. This lead to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized in part by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The boycott lasted for over a year. People began to want Dr. King to speak at their rallies and protests. Mr. Rogers then gave a piece of Dr. Kings I Have a Dream speech. As he was speaking, his voice got deeper, his face was illuminated with emotion; his dramatic hand movements added more to the effect. When he was finished, Mr. Rogers took a long dramatic pause.
 He then went on to discuss President John F. Kennedy and his support for the Civil Rights Movement. Mr. Rogers brought the audience back to 1963, to a church in Alabama, where a bomb went off killing four little girls. Two months later, President Kennedy was assassinated. When Lyndon Johnson became President, he passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in honor of President Kennedy. Mr. Rogers ended his talk by discussing Dr. Kings last speech and his assassination. He talked about how those four little girls did not die in vain, nor did Dr. King. Mr. Rogers also believes that he will not die in vain, nor will any other person.  
By Stephanie Rice
