On Thursday, February 11, 1965, more than 4,000 students and community residents attended a campus visit and lecture by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was standing room only in the Auditorium Building, with the overflow crowd packed into the Fairchild Theater where they could hear the civil rights leader's speech. The purpose of his visit was to launch the STEP program.
The STEP program was the first all student-administered educational outreach program of its kind in the country. The STEP program involved sending student and faculty volunteers during the summers of 1965 through 1968 to assist Rust College of Holly Springs, Mississippi. It evolved out of MSU students' desire to help others and gain educational experience.
On the invitation of President Smith and Dean McMillan to work with Rust College, MSU students and faculty provided a three pronged program designed to help the college maintain its accrediation and to provide support to the administration, the community and the freshmen students in the following ways:
- MSU students and faculty offered a five week residential study skills improvement insitute for entering freshmen classes in 1965 through 1968 in order that they might be better prepared to take full advantage of the education offered at Rust College.
- MSU students and faculty offered community recreational and cultural programs for Marshall County's 8 - 18 year olds.
- An MSU librarian went to Rust College for five weeks during hte summer to begin reorganizing and cataloging the library with the possiblity that additional books might be provided by MSU.
- A graduate student in business administration worked with the admissions department to create a new admission and record keeping program for the College.
- MSU Professors taught courses in the summer terms for returning teachers so that the MSU professors' credentials could be counted as part of the Rust College staff credentials.
Dr. King's speech was a fundraiser to help cover the costs for this project. When the tickets to the speech went on sale during the first days of February, the Nobel Peace Prize winner was in a Selma, Alabama because of voter registration initiatves which eventually resulted in a march in support of voting rights for all people from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
STEP Program Participants Group Photo
