Some students lined up four hours before the doors opened to see Grammy Award winner John Legend. Senior Elina Shampan said she wanted to make sure she could “see him up close.”

“I agreed with my friends that we would meet here around 1:30 [p.m.], so we could all enjoy the show together and get good seats,” Shampan said.

Sophomore Albert Conteh also got in line early.

“I lined up at 2 [p.m.] because I need to see John Legend,” Conteh said. “I love his music so I was most excited to just be around his presence.”

Junior Christina Weiberg from the University Lectures Committee said it was a team effort to have Legend speak at St. Thomas.

“There are people on the committee from STAR [St. Thomas Activites and Recreation] and USG [Undergraduate Student Government], so we all came together for this,” Weiberg said. “We’re excited to have him here.”

Former student Theo Brown was even able to “beat-box” with Legend during the musician’s performance.

“It was really cool to get up there,” Brown said. “I tried it once before when he did the same speech at another university, but this time I was actually able to do it.”

In the program titled, “An Evening with John Legend,” the singer discussed his work involving reform and social issues in Africa and the United States.

“Why do I talk about politics and social justice?” Legend said. “Frankly, I can’t help it. I have to speak up.”

Legend created the Show Me Campaign, a nonprofit organization that fights for education reform in the U.S. and fights against poverty in Africa. When given the opportunity to go to Africa, Legend said, he “jumped at the chance.”

“For the first time when I got there, I really witnessed what it was like to live on less than a dollar a day,” Legend said. “That is what prompted the Show Me Campaign.”

Legend described the campaign as an organization that prompts a call to action and gets people to ask questions.

“What am I going to do to make the world better? What are you going to do to make the world better?” Legend said. “The mission of the Show Me Campaign is to challenge me and to challenge everybody that is paying attention to think about these things.”

Legend said the U.S. public education system needs to be fixed.

“We still live in a country where opportunities are not equal,” Legend said. “Unfortunately, too much of that inequality is perpetuated and institutionalized in our classrooms everyday. Our public education system is in dire need of repair.”

Legend said the public side of America’s education system is not getting students ready for college.

“Our public elementary, middle and high schools are supposed to be preparing our country’s future leaders for great institutions like St. Thomas,” Legend said. “But too often they fail in their mission.”

Legend spoke about the education issues in Minnesota, a state he said has one of the widest achievement gaps between white students and students of color in the nation.

“About 79 percent of all students in Minnesota graduate from high school with a regular diploma in four years. That’s actually very high for graduation, one of the highest graduation rates in the country,” Legend said. “But if you dig below the surface of that data, you will find that Minnesota ranks dead last among the states for the percent of black students getting high school diplomas.”

But Legend said he is hopeful this generation can help fight for education and other social issues.

“Collectively, we have the power to make this happen. Our generation has already done amazing things,” Legend said. “I am asking our generation to continue to fight for the civil rights issue of our time: equal access to quality education for all children in Minnesota and all children throughout the United States.”

Legend announced that he will take a portion of his speaking fee and give it back to St. Thomas to “encourage young people to get involved in their communities” through fellowship opportunities.

“The Show Me Campaign has a fellowship program that provides $3,000 stipends for college students who have unpaid internships during the summer of 2011 in the field of international development working to eradicate global poverty or improve education in the United States,” Legend said.

Legend said students can find more information on the program and apply at http://showmecampaign.org/.

Cynthia Johnson can be reached at john3175@stthomas.edu.