Students gather to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy at March Like Martin event

Emily Vespa Assistant News Editor

&Heidi Reid Assistant News Editor

On Friday, Jan. 20, students marched from Stafford Commons to Harris Field during the second annual March Like Martin event to conclude the 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Campus Commemoration Week.

The event was organized by the African American Cultural Center (AACC) and Multicultural Student Affairs. angela gay-audre, director of the AACC, said this year’s march theme was “Move” and was inspired by Beyonce’s “Renaissance.”

“The only way that we can be euphoric, we can have unapologetic, unequivocal Black joy is that we just move,” gay-audre said. “And we’re talking about moving in different ways; you can move your body, you can move your mind, you can create movement around you. Movement is organizing, it’s activism, it’s also who we are as a people.”

Melanie Flowers, former student body president, spoke at Harris Field and reflected on her experience as the first Black woman student body president at NC State and discussed the challenges of addressing COVID-19 during her time in office.

“I spent my summer days concerned ideating on how the state’s largest university — and best — would address operating with a communal virus and continue to contend with its own history and activate its own chapter of reckoning,” Flowers said. “I remember this as a time of great uncertainty and great conviction. It was a summer of taking up space and taking over space. We marched and we