Subscribing to the Dream: Honoring 30 years of the MLK Youth Rally

January 22, 2025

The legacy of civil rights leaders Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Leola Bullock marched on during the 30th anniversary of the MLK Youth Rally Jan.19.

This year’s theme was “Subscribe: A Walk Together in Love.” King’s words of  “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love,” and this generation’s social media usage inspired it. 

“Our main focus is, ‘How can we subscribe to the rally? And how can people subscribe to what we're saying in our speeches?’ and so we're really working on having positive youth action and promoting and engaging the community,” Addison said. 

Addison is a junior at Southeast High School and a member of the rally’s scholar planning committee. She performed an original spoken word poem called “JUST ice.” Addison has participated in the rally for the past five years.

“I can see the improvement in the progression of this movement and this mission throughout my five years,” she said. “I think it's really important to keep everybody in the movement, and keep the generations motivated to do better.” 

The MLK Youth Rally has been integral to the Lincoln community since Bullock helped start it in 1995. The longtime local civil rights activist wanted to create a platform to amplify youth voices and empower them to stand against injustices. Dozens of supporters show up each year to sustain her mission and vision even after her death in 2010.  

“The walk has always included youth and supporting the rally is really about making sure scholars holistically are supported and we, as Dr. Bullock challenged us to, are subscribed to stand up and speak out in a walk together toward love,” Peter Ferguson said. He has served as the rally lead advisor for 28 years.

Lincoln Public Schools students also play a vital role in the event annually. From performances to organizing it, they are involved in every step of the process, like committee member Lukas. He is a sixth grader at Goodrich Middle School and this is his second year participating.  

“Subscribe means in this rally to be like you’re contributing, you’re here to help and believing that you could change the world,” Lukas said. 

Lukas got his start by performing as one of the Belmont Scholars in 2024. Motivated by last year, Lukas returned to do a rendition of Charles Morgan’s “A Time to Speak” – a speech made after the Birmingham, Ala., Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963.  

“It made me feel good because I know someone out of this place is gonna take something away from my part,” he said. 

The 30th anniversary of MLK Youth Rally also brought back several past participants from over the decades including LPS Executive Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Brittney Hodges-Bolkovac, Lincoln City Attorney Yohance Christie, and alums Jason Wagner, Keyara Taylor and Eva Sohl.  

“It was a really great opportunity to work with other students from different schools throughout the district and talk about issues that I was really passionate about as far as what my personal experience was like as a student of color, but also, like, the history of the civil rights movement, what it was like and what it looked like in Nebraska,” Sohl said. 

Sohl, a 2004 Northeast High School graduate, started assisting with the event as a sophomore in the early 2000s. Her involvement continued post-graduation as she worked as a rally facilitator with Ferguson until 2009. The Lincoln native now works in New Orleans as a social worker. She said the MLK Youth Rally instilled in her important values like relationship building, intentionality and having bold conversations.

After 15 years of being away and watching from afar, she was delighted to be invited to return and reunite with other rally alumni and bond with newer participants to continue King’s and Bullock’s work of equity in her beloved community.  She and fellow alumni member Daniel Turner helped lead the crowd in the “I am somebody” chant to conclude the event, which attendees used to say while marching to the State Capitol in previous years to pay homage to the past tradition. 

“It just brings me a lot of hope that there's more and more of us sort of coming up with this shared vision of a world where everyone can feel loved,” Sohl said.

 

To see highlights from the 30th anniversary of the MLK Youth Rally,  you can view our slideshow or watch the LNKTV recording of the live stream below. 

 

2025 MLK Youth Rally Recording 

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