SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Seventeen-year-old Xavier Scarlett says he notices eyes following him whenever he enters a store or whenever he’s on the streets at night. He’s president of his Iowa high school’s National Honor Society and captain of the basketball team, but Scarlett told the Sioux City Journal that he’s still thought of as a black, male teen who must be watched carefully.

He says he wants to follow in the footsteps of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  Scarlett was scheduled to be one of the featured speakers at Monday evening’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day ceremony at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church.

Scartlett says civil rights “isn’t a black issue. It’s a human issue.”