Students and staff came together in the Thomas Hall lobby to prepare for the 32nd annual Candlelight Vigil and March to the Martin Luther King Union Building in honor of King.

The Zeta Nu chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. helped participants light their candles and begin to march.

Following the walk, people settled in the Grand Ballroom waiting to hear from the keynote speaker Andre Allen, dean of students at the Methodist College of UnityPoint Health.

While waiting for the speaker, there were videos played that showed diversity and spoke about coming together and ending racial prejudice.

When presenting the keynote, Allen spoke about his past, living in Peoria and his experience as a student at Eastern.

He talked about the importance of promoting diversity and the contributions that he made to his fraternity of Alpha Phi Alpha.

“Teamwork truly makes the dream work,” he said.

He spoke about how he wanted to see the young people of the world make a change, and that the Eastern students could be the ones to make it a better place and help to end racism.

Gena Browning, a junior majoring in Family and Consumer Sciences, sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by Rosamond Johnson at the beginning of the event, and Devon Daves sang “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers.

“It is important to bring the student body together as a whole, especially with everything that is going on with the Black Lives Matter movement,” said Tarve’a Durant, a member of the fraternity.

Cheryl-Anne Johnson, an athletic training major said, it is good to help student engagement and come together to uplift each other.

Imani Tapley can be reached at 581-2812 or at istapley@eiu.edu.