As SMU students became more active in the civil rights movement, at least 50 traveled from Dallas to join the Selma to Montgomery march in March 1965. A few months later, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. accepted an invitation from the SMU Student Senate and, on March 17, 1966, spoke to a crowd of 2,700 at McFarlin Auditorium. Citing history and longstanding challenges, he gave practical reasons why segregation should end before declaring that racial injustice must be uprooted from American society because it is morally wrong. In his first Texas visit to a predominantly white university, he received a standing ovation, and his speech influenced many to engage in movements for equality on campus, in their city, and in the nation.