'Not the time to cower': MLK's message takes on renewed meaning at Lincoln youth rally

Livia Ziskey - Lincoln Journal Star - January 19, 2026

Instead, students from fourth through 12th grade stood confidently behind a podium, sharing their original poems, songs and dances — and ultimately their urgent request that Lincoln continue to carry forward the lives and legacies of civil rights leaders like King.

"Hear me: This is not the time to cower," said Jamersyn Hughes, a high school senior from Statesboro, Georgia, who flew into Lincoln for the rally. "This is the time to walk with audacity. King's legacy believed in unarmed truth and unconditional love."

Audacity served as the theme of Monday's rally, harking back to King's 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in which he reminded the crowd that he was unwilling to accept the present state of the world. 

"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits," King said. "I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up."

More than 60 years after that speech, Lincoln youth reminded their audience that King's audacious dreams still have yet to come true. Belinda Qiao, a sophomore at Lincoln East, presented a summarized history of anti-Chinese sentiment in the U.S. She sees eerily similar parallels in how immigrants and people of color are treated today — treatment that leaders like King would detest.

"Aliens, terrorists, gangs of criminals — immigrants are once again painted as the enemy and blamed for our country's problems as our leaders create a list excluding entire countries at a time," Qiao said.

The negative rhetoric about immigrants makes clear that King's fight for equal rights isn't over, Qiao said, but that's no reason to give up hope. 

"The good news is each of us has the power to be part of the solution, and we need to find things to learn from each other, to embrace our differences," Qiao said. "America is built off the blood, sweat and tears of immigrants. Immigrants yesterday, today and tomorrow make America great."

As a group of Belmont Elementary fifth graders took the stage to present the "Audacity of ABCs" — an adaptation of the book "H is for Harlem" — it wasn't solely their words that made an impact, said Pete Ferguson, lead adviser of the rally.

When Dominic Reyes forgot his words, his classmate Zaynab Totou didn't let him stand alone in silence. She approached him at the podium, gave him an encouraging nod and quietly helped him remember his next line.

That unprompted display of support is part of King's legacy and what the youth rally is all about, Ferguson said.

"You just saw audacity at play in so many different ways," he said.

As fellow students stood shoulder to shoulder on the stage, Harnoor Sidhu shared a closing message with the crowd. Young people aren't the future, she said. 

"I refuse to believe that scholars are tomorrow," the Lincoln Southwest sophomore said. "Scholars are today. We are today." 

Waiting until tomorrow to create change is too late, she said. She called upon the audience to be bold and uphold King's legacy, not just on the third Monday in January, but every single day.

"Here is the audacious truth that I'll leave you with," Sidhu said. "When books are erased, we become libraries. When voices are silenced, we speak louder. And when honesty is risky, audacity becomes necessary."

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