Yesterday a friend invited me to a rally today at Marquette Alumni Union by Members of Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES). They were calling on the administration of Marquette University to establish an exclusive scholarship fund for undocumented students. They wanted to hold Marquette University accountable to its Jesuit beliefs in social justice. I came and was impressed by the number of Marquette students at the rally. I was reminded of 1968 when a number of Marquette students rallied to establish a scholarship fund for African American students. Several students spoke on the urgency of this fund and we than marched to the administration building and went up to the fourth floor to deliver a letter to the president. This is the same 4th floor where the legal counsel of Marquette University reminded me just the other day that no one was allowed to enter without an appointment.

I said a few words at the rally about our struggle in 1968 and how at the end, with nonviolent action, arrest, expulsion, resignations of students we were successful. I encourage them to struggle on and Thanked God for them. Several students spoke to me on the march to the administration building and back to the Union and thanked me for my words. I thanked them for boldly speaking out an issue, support of undocumented students, that was not so popular but central to Catholic Church teaching and Jesuit struggle for social justice, especially for marginalized, like undocumented.

I have been trying to find out how many African Americans young adults from Milwaukee are presently enrolled in the Educational Opportunity Program, the program that was established after our 1968 struggle. Since it so hard to find out makes me wonder if there are many African Americans from Milwaukee in the program. Today was a YES day.

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