In the summer of 1968, amid the upheaval following the murder of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the College of the Holy Cross recruited 20 black students to pursue a liberal arts education on its Worcester campus. That act of racial outreach and social justice was the special project of Rev. John Brooks, the college’s visionary president. He not only offered the students a place at Holy Cross, but “mentored, defended, coached, and befriended’’ them.