Las Vegas students learn about Martin Luther King Jr. meeting
Dr. Robert Green met Martin Luther King Jr. in 1956 while working as a taxicab driver in San Francisco. King was giving a speech, and Green was mesmerized.
“After the speech, I ran up to him and pulled his coattail and said hello,” Green told about 200 students at Western High School.
King had told him to stay in school and that once he graduated, King would have a job for him. When Green finished school, he did start working for the civil rights icon, as the education director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in 1965.
“Do well in math, do well in science, and social justice will come your way,” Green said, adding, “You have the opportunity today to receive the best education in the world. Education is the factor that can propel you in life.”
Green told the students that the fight for social justice becomes easier with an education and urged them to stay in school. The Las Vegas resident’s Feb. 19 speech was held in connection with Black History Month and also encouraged students to support one another despite cultural and racial differences.
That message is timely at Western; in October, about 50 people were pepper-sprayed after a fight broke out there. Five students were arrested, and police attributed the violence to “cross-cultural issues” or “racial differences.” A Las Vegas Review-Journal report said the school has a history of such fights and conflicts because of the racial tensions.
Green recalled the relationship between King and civil and labor rights activist Cesar Chavez.
“Young people, look around you; look at yourselves,” Green said. “Support each other. Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez would never, never think of fighting each other. They loved each other; they were brothers together.”
Green showed a photo of Chavez marching alongside King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, and his mother, Alberta Williams King, at the March Against Fear. He said the photo was taken in Jackson, Mississippi.
Western senior Antravion Shelby, 17, said Green’s speech inspired him. He wants to study business management.
“(The speech) made me want to stay in school and go further to college and become successful,” Shelby said.
Western principal Monica Cortez said Green’s speech was an opportunity for students to learn about other cultures and “that there are people of all different races who have had disagreements that work together.”
Contact Rachel Spacek at 702-387-2921 or rspacek@reviewjournal.com. Follow @RachelSpacek on Twitter.
