Some may remember Jan. 15 as the day the United Nations sanctioned use of U.N. forces against Iraq, but others remember the birthday of a man who fought for peace.

After 3:30 this afternoon, classes will not be mandatory so that students may participate in a Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day march and hear readings of his speeches and writings.

Marcy Mells (freshman-elementary education) said people should concentrate on promoting peace in King's honor.

"I think it's the best time to honor his birthday, because he died for peace and we need some peace," Mells said.

During the '50s and '60s, King devoted his life to combatting racism and other social issues through nonviolent means. He also spoke out against the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War.

On March 25, 1967, in an anti-war march in Chicago, King proclaimed, "We must combine the fervor of the civil rights movement with the peace movement."

Larry Young, director of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center, said the United Nations' choice of King's birthday to approve of force in the Middle East was "at best insensitive and at worst cynically racist."

Young said he believes King would seriously question America's deployment of 450,000 troops in Saudi Arabia. King would question the over-representation of African-Americans and other minorities among the troops, Young added.

African-Americans comprise 26 to 33 percent of the troops, yet account for only 12 percent of the United States population, said John Black, an anti-war activist and State College resident.

"Finding an inordinate number of African-Americans and Hispanics in the troops of the Persian Gulf and having them about to engage in slaughter and to face slaughter -- I think he would vocally speak out against the war," Young said.

In 1966 at a Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King called for American withdrawal from Vietnam. He viewed the Vietnam War as an enemy of the poor, because it drained financial and human resources that could have helped poor people's struggle. Some people considered King unpatriotic because he protested Vietnam.

"We have a war to fight right here at home," Black said. "That's what (King) said during the Vietnam War. There needs to be a war on poverty and civil rights." Black added the Persian Gulf War is for the rich, but the poor people have to fight it.

Black, who is president of the Pennsylvania Hospital Workers' Union, said he marched with King in the '60s.

Gloria Fokuo (junior-accounting) said she thinks King would view the United States as interfering in the Middle East and trying to protect its own interests.

"Since Martin Luther King was against the Vietnam War, students should get more involved and voice their opinions about the gulf war," Fokuo said. "Martin Luther King devoted his life to getting involved. We can also get involved so we can make a difference."