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 moved.”

Flowers said King’s legacy shaped her understanding of activism and leadership.

“Dr. King did more than dream we would love one another,” Flowers said. “He dreamed and understood it to be crucial that we loved ourselves, especially we as Black people…If I didn’t love myself, my skin, my people, I wouldn’t have had the courage to move. I would have only marched.”

gay-audre said the march was the final event of the 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Campus Commemoration Week to help students reflect on the events throughout the week, which was centered around the theme of Renaissance. 

“We wanted to culminate the end of a week of keynotes, to think about the Renaissance and to deliver a message of movement, of ‘What does it mean to physically move, as well as to engage in movement throughout the course of a week?’” gay-audre said. “So we wanted to culminate with a march that’s demonstrative in nature.”

Flowers said she was excited to engage with members of the campus community as an alumna.

“There are only nine other Black [student body] presidents who have served, and so many of them immediately messaged me after I won and said, ‘I’m here to support you, if you have any questions, if you just need to rant, if something’s going wrong— I’m here, others were here for me,’” Flowers said. “And so when I got a call to potentially come speak, I was excited to share about my experience and enjoy campus and be back especially after being interestingly positioned during COVID-19. It’s great to see how lively things are.”

The AACC is holding events throughout the month of February to celebrate Black History Month. To learn more about upcoming events, visit their website.