Saint Louis University is reaching across Compton Avenue to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. This week SLU kicked off a joint campaign with its eastern neighbor Harris-Stowe State University to raise $10,000 to build a national monument to the civil rights leader. The partnership is the brainchild of outgoing Student Government Association President Evan Krauss, who said he hopes that the venture will “foster greater collaboration” between SLU and historically black Harris-Stowe.

“I saw that many other colleges had joined this campaign,” Krauss said. “I looked out my office window at Harris-Stowe, and I realized how symbolic it could be if our two institutions joined together on this project.”

Krauss and Harris-Stowe SGA President Leonard Johnson officially began the fundraising effort at a signing ceremony on Monday, April 30 in the Busch Student Center. Speakers at the ceremony included U.S. Congressman William Lacy Clay, Harris-Stowe President Henry Givens, Ph.D., and St. Louis City License Collector Michael McMillan.

McMillan, a SLU alumnus and formerly Midtown’s representative on the St. Louis Board of Alderman, offered a $500 check to start off the fundraising campaign.

SLU and Harris-Stowe’s student government associations are affiliating with the Dream Keepers College Program. The national organization is dedicated to helping finance the construction of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. Groundbreaking on the memorial took place in November 2006; it will occupy a space on the National Mall at the edge of the Tidal Basin, facing the Jefferson Memorial.

SLU and Harris-Stowe’s first fundraising event will be a barbeque and music festival on Saturday, May 5. The event, which will include dance performances and a dunking booth, will begin at noon at Harris-Stowe’s parking lot, directly across Compton Avenue from the arena construction site.

Krauss said that he decided to get behind the Dream Keeper’s project because of his deep admiration from King.

“Martin Luther King is something, although I’ve never met him, who has inspired me . Dr. King’s words and actions have molded me into the man I am today,” Krauss said.

Krauss will be graduating at the end of the semester, so newly inaugurated SGA President Andrew Clifton will soon take the reins of SLU’s Dream Keepers fundraising efforts.

“Next year we will be committed to reaching the goal,” Clifton said.

Clifton said that he will be working with Harris-Stowe SGA President Johnson to develop plans for other events over the summer.