The celebrations for Martin Luther King Jr. Day were left up to schools and other institutions Monday in Charleston and Mattoon.

Most of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in Charleston or Mattoon were planned and conducted by schools like Lake Land College in Mattoon and Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

One such event was the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and Tribute, planned by the Zeta Nu Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Incorporated.

Darius White, treasurer of Alpha Phi Alpha Incorporated, said he believes the holiday should garner more attention from all community members.

“It should be a bigger event,” he said.

According to Sperling Best Places, a research firm based in Portland, Ore., 4.47 percent of Charleston residents are African American.

Bert Sperling, president of Sperling Best Places, said the number was arrived at using data from the last census and county population data.

He said the number did include any African American students attending Eastern.

However, White said, the reason he thought there was no city-sponsored celebration was more about the misperception of what the holiday stands for than the racial make-up of the city.

White, who was in charge of promoting the tribute, said most people, students as well as townspeople, believe the day to be just another day off work or school and fail to see the great influence King had on the world.

“People don’t know the reasons for the day,” he said.

White said this is not the fault of the people but of college minority and civil rights organizations for not reaching out to the community to inform them of King’s hopes and dreams for the world.

He said most minority and civil rights groups on campus, Alpha Phi Alpha Incorporated included, do not try to reach beyond campus to tell people about King and his goals of racial equality.

“We can honestly say the community doesn’t know about a lot of things on campus,” White said.

He hopes groups on campus will realize this in the coming years and actively try to get community members more involved in on-campus causes.

One way White said Alpha Phi Alpha Incorporated will try to reach out to the community is by setting up a website for the group.

White said he hopes the website will make the groups causes and goals more visible to community members so they can become involved.

Jordan Crook can be reached at 581-7945 or at jscrook@eiu.edu.