Hundreds March on CMU’s Campus for Martin Luther King’s Legacy

Nobody can tell you exactly when the march started but for years it has become a staple on the campus of Central Michigan University.

Monday afternoon, again hundreds of students marched through the Mt. Pleasant campus in the name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The temperature was in the twenties. The turnout was in the hundreds.

“I like for people to look at it more as like not just a date to have school off or just a day to have no classes,” said Mee’ya Robinson, senior from Ypsilanti, “More so to take the time to indulge and to learn about Martin Luther King.”

It’s the key event for a week-long celebration on campus. The meaning of Dr. King’s message, they say, is more needed now, than ever.

“I would say that the awareness is there,” said Christian Callaway, senior from Detroit, “We’re having those difficult conversations and that’s something the MASS office really pushes.”

That’s the Multicultural Academic Student Services office, the host of the events.

“We just see that with a new sense of empowerment and purpose that we see this time of year,” said Wade Thomson, assistant director at MASS.

This year’s march stretched for at least two city blocks.

“I will say definitely the crowd has gotten a lot bigger, like from freshman year to sophomore year, and then obviously COVID kind of disrupted things,” said Robinson, “But pre-COVID, we seen more and more students become more involved come out and celebrate the holiday for what it really is.”

These students say it’s easy to post Dr. King’s quotes and repeat his messages but action is what’s needed and action makes the difference.

“Coming out here and actually putting that action,” said Mary Mamutimy, senior from Mt. Pleasant, “It’s super cold, people don’t have to be here but I feel like that service will be touching a lot of people and it made them want to come out and start doing more.”

More information on CMU’s Martin Luther King Jr Week can be found