(Jessica Banuelos)
BYU students and families gathered at the Centennial Carillion Bell Tower Monday evening Jan. 18, 2016 to participate in the Martin Luther King Walk of Life and Commemoration. The crowd gathered with lit candles and walked to the Wilkinson Center to listen from the BSU (black student union) choir and hear from guest speaker Winston Wilkinson.
Faculty and volunteers united and organized the event to attribute Martin Luther King’s dream of equality within society.
Nathan Ormsby, assistant directory to the Multicultural Student Services (MSS) said the organization looks forward to MLK day events each year.
“We are excited to come together to celebrate and remember Dr. Martin Luther King’s efforts and his great work with civil rights,” Ormsby said.
Victor Mendoza, a junior at BYU attended the MLK day events and said he appreciated Martin Luther King’s dream.
“Dr. King had the audacity to dream of an America that would judge the content of their character and not the color of their skin. He promoted equality and social freedoms and so we are here to commemorate those values that he believed in,” Mendoza said.
The crowd sat inside the WSC to hear inspirational words of hope from the guest speaker after completing the Walk of Life. Wilkinson is from Cedar Heights, Maryland and joined the United States Navy after graduating from high school. He attended Morgan State University and Howard Law school. He worked as an assistant to the Secretary of Education and in the Office of Civil Rights.
Wilkinson shared his conversion story of joining the LDS church and how he became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. He went on to explain that Dr.King’s dream of hope could not be dimmed.
“My concern is that light is flickering, that beacon of light. We need to deal with the challenge of hopelessness and fulfill the dream,” Wilkinson said. “We can do better and we will do better.”
