'It starts with me': CMU marches for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. remembrance day
Students hold up a photo of Dr. King during the CommUNITY Peace March & Vigil Monday, Jan. 16 on Main St.
Nearly 300 students, faculty and community members marched from Central Michigan University’s Bovee University Center to downtown Mount Pleasant Monday.
People got together to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and unite as a community that celebrates diversity and what King stood for. Participants engaged in lively conversation and carried colorful signs; even cold rain didn’t stop them from having fun and being a part of the march.
Alfred Harper, assistant director of Multicultural Academic Student Services (MASS), worked on organizing the week of events for the remembrance of MLK. Harper said that, together with his student-volunteers, he wanted to provide an opportunity to show unity of the community and welcome everybody.
“It made me proud to see the diversity in the amount of students willing to sacrifice their time, walking the weather where they are being cold and being wet,” Harper said. “Just think about the same sacrifices our ancestors (made) that came before us. They sacrificed their time but in far worse than what it is now.”
Students and community members march in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the CommUNITY Peace March & Vigil Monday, Jan. 16 on Main St.
Kevin Wilson is assistant director of Diversity Education in the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. He said it was important to have this march in 2023 because more and more people from different countries come to the United States.
“It’s about awareness … making sure that we create a diverse, equitable and inclusive campus and everything that Dr. Martin Luther King talked about,” Wilson said. “’(The) 'I Have a Dream Speech' is all about that. … We will never forget what our plan is — to increase (diversity) and (inclusiveness on) campus.”
Wilson said that CMU over the years gets better at creating different communities and representing the Black community. For example, CMU appointed a lot of African American women to leadership positions Wilson said.
Reneé Watson is the vice president of Student Affairs. Watson said that she is her ancestors’ “wildest dream” as a black woman who was able to become a vice president.
“It shows me that progress has been made, but there’s still work to be done,” Watson said.
“These events bring out a unifying factor,” she said. “We walk and reflect how many lives were lost to the civil rights movement and how we stand on their shoulders. For me it’s always an opportunity to keep myself grounded that world is still ongoing.”
Faculty and community felt the importance in uniting to march together and support each and everyone in the community.
Students hold up handmade posters during the CommUNITY Peace March & Vigil Monday, Jan. 16 outside Moore Hall.
Laura Martinez, an officer with the Central Michigan University Police Department, said she joined the MLK events to unite with people and show love to one another in the community.
“It shows that individuals are human to human and shows human kindness,” Martinez said. “(To show) individuals of any creed (belief), color, race … that we’re here for anyone that needs help.”
Jessica Tuma, a secretary in the College of Medicine marched with her dog, Silvia. Despite the rain and the large amount of people around, Silvia was doing well and even wanted to walk faster. Tuma said CMU does a good job with representing different cultures, and she felt it was important to march with the community.
“It’s important to remember Martin Luther King and what he stood for,” she said. “The march (is meant) to keep his memory alive and everything that he stood for.”
Eric Pouncil, a graduate assistant for MASS office, and Aubrey Thomas, CMU senior and peer advisor for MASS, were members of a student team that helped Harper organize the march.
Thomas said she worked on clearing a path for the march, getting students involved, making sure everybody was safe and keeping spirits up. She said the team worked on finding time for the event, involving community sponsors and partners and reaching out to student organizations.
“What I see is a day that we all stand and make a remembrance of a great man,” Thomas said. “This reminds us that we need to continue to fight, to continue to push, to continue to educate… Of course, (it is) also a reminder of how much we have more to do.”
Pouncil said he was amazed by the turnout and number of people walking.
The march’s final point was downtown Mount Pleasant, where participants gathered to listen to students and faculty speak.
Mitchell Basham, a runner-up in the MLK Oratorical Contest gives a speech at the CommUNITY Peace March & Vigil Monday, Jan. 16 in downtown Mt. Pleasant.
Runners-up of the oratorical contest, second-year student Aaliyah Howard and first-year student Mitchell Basham, presented their speeches at the end of the march. They both talked about the importance of changing our world and giving support to underrepresented communities. Howard and Basham said they wanted people to feel empowered to fight the system of injustice.
“There is a place for everybody to speak up for the people who feel like they can’t,” Basham said.
Shawna Patterson-Stephens, vice president of the Office for Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, in her speech talked about reasons why this march took place. She said it is because social injustice is still happening today and people are suffering from it. Marching together and being aware of it is what makes social change, she said.
“It starts with me. It starts with you,” Patterson-Stephens said in her speech. “Thank you for marching today and remembering MLK‘s legacy and starting to think about and realize your place in that legacy as well.”
After the march, participants were invited to help themselves to free hot chocolate and hot apple cider in Bovee University Center to warm up. Organizers of the march also provided buses on behalf of I-ride for students to return to Bovee University Center.
