Participants with locked arms and locked lips trudged through the snow on Monday during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Silent March across College Green.
The crowd filled the pews and spilled out across the walls of Galbreath Chapel in preparation for the march. The church was filled with laughter and chatter as participants filed in.
Ohio University President Duane Nellis and his wife, Ruthie, sat in the first pew with Vice President for Student Affairs Jason Pina as multiple members of the community and of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, which had a large part in planning the march, came up to embrace them.
Elijah Cohen-Denson, president of Alpha Phi Alpha, gathered the group outside the chapel, where The Rev. Evan Young led the group in a prayer to start the march.
The participants locked arms, two-by-two, as they silently marched through College Green and finally ended in Baker Ballroom, where brunch was waiting. Otis Crockron pounded on a keyboard, filling the ballroom with soulful music with his band, Otis Crockron & Co.
The march and brunch were part of OU's celebration, called "MLK50 Forward: Together We Win With Love For Humanity," throughout January of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life nearly 50 years after his death.