A Youth Summit was held in Junction City on Saturday, ahead of  the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

An Assistant Director for the KSU Office of Admissions Bryon Williams stated toward the end of King’s life he was not as popular as he had been earlier. He noted it didn’t cost the country anything to integrate the schools. ” But when Dr. King started talking about poor people, and he started talking about the plight of poor people in the North, black, white, brown, so on and so forth then you start talking about power. And nobody wants to give up power.”

Williams noted King organized boycotts of chin stores, grocery stores…places where blacks would spend money but not get a job. He praised King for having great ideas.

A 2006 Junction City High School graduate Tyrone Williams stated he felt today’s society misses the actual concept of what King truly stood for.  He called King a leader. He agreed with Bryon Williams that not many people agreed with King toward the end of the civil rights’ leader’s life. “But he did what he did for purpose. And a lot of people who walk around in our society today do miss out on purpose.”

A 2011 Junction City High School graduate Ronald Atkinson Jr. Said when he was  a child he knew King as a figure rather than as a person, or what he actually stood for. Atkinson feels in schools today there is limited discussion, but not on the aspect for what he stood for. “And basically the reason why I feel is like we’re not teaching history up into the modern day age. It’s a good thing that we must make sure we educate our youth what history actually was at the time. ”

The Youth Summit was held at the C. L. Hoover Opera House in Junction City.