On February 11, 1965, more than 4,000 students and community residents attended a campus visit and lecture by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who came to MSU to kick off a fundraising drive for the Student Educational Project (STEP). The STEP program—the first all student-administered educational outreach program of its kind in the country—sent student and faculty volunteers during the summer of 1965 to assist Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi.