DeKALB | Despite the cold, the wind and the snow, students gathered in Stevenson Thursday afternoon to participate in the 18th Annual Martin Luther King March for Peace and Justice.

The march began at Stevenson Towers South residence hall and proceeded south on Lucinda, concluding at the Carl Sandburg Auditorium in the Holmes Student Center.

The turnout of marchers at the event was a common topic for many of the participants.

“Because of the weather, you don’t have a lot of people that participated,” said Mitchell Gaddis, president of the NAACP NIU chapter. “The founder of the march is here and he insists that we march rain, sleet or snow.”

“This is a pretty decent turnout,” said Kiowa Howery, a senior family, consumer and nutritional sciences major. “I’m happy to be here. The attendance is growing each year.”

Despite the weather, the marchers focused on their common goal.

“This is something we do to recognize why we are here in the first place,” said Regi Brown, president of Phi Beta Sigma.

The march culminated in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium with speeches by Gaddis; Jarvis Purnell, the student body treasurer; Maurice Thomas, founder of the march; Minister Yahcolyah Muhammad, the DeKalb/Rockford representative of the nation of Islam; and keynote speaker Minister Nuri Muhammad, the Indianapolis representative of the nation of Islam.

The speeches reflected on the importance Dr. King’s words and actions still have today.

“We recognize that some progress has been made, but not enough to rest,” said Purnell. Purnell described Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech as a “blueprint for a way of living.”

Minister Yahcolyah Muhammad stressed the importance of taking action.

“Martin Luther King was not just a dreamer, he was a liver. When we dream, we are asleep,” Muhammad said.

Minister Nuri Muhammad commented on the significance of the march lasting 18 years.

“That is a sign of a different mind in a black man or woman,” Nuri Muhammad said.

In summary of the evening, Maurice Thomas referenced the African spiritual “This Little Light of Mine.”

“Ideas are very stimulating, but it takes our action to let our light shine,” Thomas said.