B-PEP president remembers Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit to Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Monday marks the national Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Film from the KDKA-TV archives shows Martin Luther King Jr. in Pittsburgh for a speech at the University of Pittsburgh's William Pitt Union on Nov. 2, 1966. 

"A couple of my fraternity brothers and I, we picked him up at the airport," said B-PEP president Tim Stevens. 

Stevens was there. He was a student at Pitt at the time and is a member of the same fraternity as King.

"I've been impacted by Dr. King personally in the sense of those years with my civil rights work going back to the late 1960s," Stevens said. 

The civil rights leader was asked that day by reporters about Black soldiers serving in Vietnam.    

"It may not be a conscious thing, but it goes back to grave economic problem that we face in our country," King said. "The fact that many Negroes feel that they have to go in the service to deal with their economic problem means that we've got to go all out to solve the economic problem because that only points to the fact that the Negro is still a victim of economic deprivation."

It was King's last public appearance in Pittsburgh. 

Today, there are a few locations around town that bare the name of the civil rights icon. The Martin Luther King Jr. busway is one. However, Stevens says there is minimal signage with his name. He's working with the PRT to change that. 

"That gives a permanent statement in this area of the importance of Dr. King's legacy to the region and to his history as one of the greatest Americans to ever live," Stevens said. 

 And when it comes to voting rights, Stevens says he'll continue to fight.

"Some of us who to this day may say our vote does not matter, you need to rethink that. One person can make a difference," he said.