News Local/State

Champaign-Urbana Community Activist Says MLK Changed The Nation’s Understanding Of Civil Rights

By Tiffany Jolley
 
Listen (Duration: 2:47)
Download

Today marks a holiday remembering how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. promoted principles of nonviolence as he led the civil rights movement, in the early 1960s.

For one long-time community activist in Champaign-Urbana, Terry Townsend, Dr. King's teachings are still shaping how we understand civil and human rights today.

Terry Townsend is a long-time community activist in Champaign-Urbana. 

 Champaign-Urbana civil rights activist,Terry Townsend, in his early years as an activist.

Photo Credit: Museum of the Grand Prairie. He brought the Community Reinvestment Act to the attention of community leaders which resulted in banks increasing their efforts to make loans to African Americans.

"I think Dr. King was able to change the way that we think about ourselves and how others view us, and I'm talking about African Americans," said Townsend.

But Townsend says Dr. King did more than just that.

"He made it plausible for us to understand that if cvil rights were important to just us only, it would not be an American issues, it would be an African American issue, and civil rights is in fact an American issue." 

When asked if he felt like the last two years reminded him of the 1960s, Townsend said he believed that the past will inform race relations in the present.

"It's important for us to not forget where we've been, and Dr. King made us appreciate each other, and some of that, we've lost," said Townsend.