Northport Public School students, staff and the community came together Monday afternoon to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day with presentations and songs.

Under the direction of teacher Marshall Collins Jr., students from the high school cultural awareness and communication classes worked on the presentation for a month.

“The students did their own research and decided what points would be discussed and presented at the celebration,” Collins said. Students also put together the multi-media background displayed on screen as students spoke about the slain civil rights leader.

Providing musical reinforcement for the presentation were his parents, Marshall and Mary Collins. They opened the program with Mary Collins on piano as they sang a spiritual. The Collinses also performed Lift Every Voice and Sing, and We Shall Overcome to close the celebration.

Students Jason Tropf, Edward Perez, Chris Blessing and Rose Petoskey presented information on King’s life, with Heaven Firestone, Octavia Buss, Chris Hammersley and Amanda Adams talking about his teachings and principles. Betsy Shiner, Emily Stowe, Kelly Fischer, Evan Morgan and Eric Johnson discussed the civil rights movement as a whole and other key figures, including Rosa Parks and Emmett Till. Eli Shiner, Tani Roman, Shane Detweiler, Tyler Millard and Quenton Buss took turns reading King’s I Have a Dream speech.

The final presentation from students Sophie Mosher, Amanda Luna, Max Raphael and Edward Gonzalez discussed what impact King had on society, and whether work of the civil rights movement has been completed.