Hundreds show up to pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at rainy march

Around 200 people gathered together on a rainy Monday afternoon at East High School in Salt Lake City to pay tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, a reckoning force in the fight for civil rights.

Rev. Oscar Moses of the Calvary Baptist Church & Interfaith Council gave an invocation and spoke to the crowd.

“Dr. King was the catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement that helped pilot the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” Moses said. “He gave voice to the disenfranchised and marginalized people of the world, that were and still are holding onto the hope of a truly United States of America.”

It’s been 37 years since the first federally designated MLK day was celebrated, but Utah didn’t adopt the holiday until 2000.

Monday’s event was a part of the U.’s MLK Week, “a platform for engaging students, faculty, trainees, staff, and community members in critical conversations around race and contemporary civil rights issues in America.”

The East High School’s jazz band performed, followed by remarks from speakers like Pamela Bishop, the director of marketing and communications for the university’s equity, diversity and inclusion department.

People old and young packed the auditorium. The co-founder of the Black Menaces TikTok group Sebastian Stewart-Johnson was one attendee. The group is known for addressing racism on Brigham Young University’s campus and starting other important campus conversations.

Young children and adults held signs provided by the U., which featured quotes from Dr. King’s six principles of nonviolence. Many brought custom signs, too, like one little girl in a pink tulle skirt who carried a sign with a hand-drawn illustration of Dr. King.

According to Mary Ann Villarreal, the vice president of EDI, MLK week at the U is planned by a volunteer committee of students, faculty and staff like Frances Battle, who spoke at the event The theme of the week, she said, is choosing love over hate like Dr. King did.

The event also featured two performances from the Resistance Revival Chorus, a New York-based group of musicians who explore activism, and remarks from Mayor Jenny Wilson. President of the Associated Students of the University of Utah Taylor VanderToolen also spoke.

While Gov. Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov Deidre Henderson were absent from the event, Nubia Peña, a senior adviser for equity and opportunity at Cox’s office, spoke to the need for continued efforts for racial equity.

Peña noted the importance of focusing on equity and diversity going into the upcoming legislative session, referencing the C.R.O.W.N. Act, which stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.” Several states have passed versions of the act to ban discrimination based on hairstyles. A Utah version was sponsored by Sen. Derek Kitchen in the 2021 and 2022 legislative sessions, but the bill didn’t advance either year.

Then, the group led by University of Utah president Taylor Randall, marched to Kingsbury Hall at the U.’s campus, a walk just over a mile from East High School, many toting umbrellas along with their signs.

As Mary Ann Villarreal, the vice president of equity diversity and inclusion at the U., told the crowd in the auditorium, “Ain’t no rain stopping this march.”