Members of The September 29th Movement are holding a civil disobedience workshop this Friday with members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

The SCLC was founded in the 1950s and was headed by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. until his assassination in 1968.

Members of The Movement are interested in what the SCLC has to offer them, Milton McGriff, spokesman for The Movement, said.

“We had been introduced to the SCLC and asked if we were interested in learning what they had to offer and we said ‘yes,'” McGriff said.

The workshop, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 5 p.m. on April 4 in the South Ballroom of the Memorial Union.

Movement members have had some experience in the area of civil disobedience, such as the Nov. 5 unauthorized rally in Beardshear Hall when students attempted to gain the attention of Iowa State administrators.

McGriff said the workshop is not being held in response to that incident. “We are holding the workshop because education is always good, and we need to do whatever we need to do for positive change,” McGriff said.

Herman Watson, treasurer of SCLC in Kansas City, and the Rev. Nelson “Fuzzy” Thompson have volunteered their services and will co-coordinate the workshop. Thompson, president of SCLC in Kansas City, also served as a state coordinator for civil rights activist Jesse Jackson during his presidential campaigns in the 1980s.

New methods for achieving change may be just what The Movement is looking for, McGriff said.

“Jischke says he responds and listens, but he is unwilling to see that we want to participate in the decision making at this university,” McGriff said.

McGriff said this type of “CEO-style management,” in what is supposed to be a democracy, places students on a collision course with the administration.

“We’re trying to find all kinds of ways to get things done without civil disobedience,” McGriff said. “We would love to not have to use what we’ll learn [about civil disobedience], but based on Jischke’s history I don’t know if that will happen.

“I hope that any students who do come will learn the moral and spiritual commitment one must make when it comes to civil disobedience,” McGriff said.

Other workshops are being planned for the week of April 7 for students who want to know more about The Movement, Nosworthy said.

“We keep saying that informed students will make the right decisions,” Nosworthy said. “The administration wants to keep students in the dark; we want to educate them and let them make up their own minds.”