ALLENDALE, Mich. — Students and staff at Grand Valley State University celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr with a series of public conversations and a silent march.
The day kicked off with a session of "upcycling," in which students made new use of old items. A panel discussion was held at 11 a.m. in which students and staff discussed issues of race, religion and society at large.
Dr. Louis Moore, an associate Professor of History at GVSU said Monday, “it's young people like their age that got King to move. Young people like them that helped integrate restaurants, who helped integrate the buses, who helped push for voter rights. And so, this is the next generation coming up to make sure that King’s dream becomes a reality.”
A major presence was felt on campus Monday was the silent march across campus. Several hundred people gathered in front of the university's library to march in silence for about 15-20 minutes.
The group moved slowly from the library all the way to the field house across campus. The day's keynote speaker was Dr. Yusef Salaam, one of the men exonerated after being wrongfully accused and convicted in the Central Park jogger murder case in 1989/90.
"King gave us a platform for everyone to have a voice to make change and he also gave us a plan to make sure we get to achieve the true meaning of democracy that the founding fathers set out to bring,” Moore said.
