The crowd gathered under the light from a street lamp in front of Wescoe Hall last night as Santos Nuñez, director of the Multicultural Resource Center welcomed them to the “Walking the Dream” luminary march.

The event comes a week after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. Robert Page, director of the office of multicultural affairs, said this was the first time that the University had held a campus-wide event honoring King’s legacy.

The participants silently marched down Jayhawk Boulevard holding luminaries in remembrance of King. The walk centered on five key milestones in King’s life: his birth, graduation from Morehouse College in Atlanta, writing “Letter from Birmingham Jail” after his arrest, his famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech and his assassination on April 4, 1968.

At each milestone students lit a candle and spoke about King’s life.

“The luminary walk is depicting just how much the struggle was for equality and for racial justice,” Page said.

The walk was used as a reminder of past marches that King organized.

The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., in which King was once a member, worked in conjunction with the MRC on the “Walking the Dream” presentation.

“I’m hoping people will experience a life that was truly amazing. Hopefully people will be touched by the strife that he had to go to,” said Anthony Brown, Grandview senior and president of the Upsilon chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha.

Candles were left under the Jayhawk statue in front of the entrance of the Kansas Union. The lights flickered as students continued into the building for the remainder of the program.

Tim Dupree, the first black prosecutor in Emporia, was the keynote speaker. Among topics he discussed were the challenges King faced and his accomplishments.

Inspirational Gospel Voices, a University-affiliated gospel group, performed before and after Dupree’s speech. Marlesa Roney, vice provost of student success, closed the ceremony with a final speech.

About 35 people participated in the march.