Silent march to take place across campus Saturday to raise awareness for voter registration and education

Kyrie Thomas
Fri, 27 Sep 2024 06:34:17 +0000
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A committee of several Ohio State organizations, including NAACP OSU, will host a silent march Saturday to promote voter registration and education across campus.?

Titled the “March on Scarlet,” the event will begin at 11 a.m. and is intended to represent or emulate the 1963 March on Washington, which made similar efforts to raise awareness for voting rights, said Isaac Wilson, a fourth-year in aerospace engineering and president of NAACP OSU.

“[It’s] the same time that March on Washington started, at 11 o’clock, in terms of just everybody having the right to vote and the freedom to vote,” Wilson said.

The March on Washington, which occurred Aug. 28, 1963, was a collaborative effort between multiple civil rights groups in which over 260,000 people gathered to protest racial inequality in the United States, according to the NAACP’s website. It was at this march where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.?

The March on Scarlet will move through “the heart of campus,” said Jordan McAdoo, a third-year in finance and secretary for the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, which will participate in the event.

Alpha Phi Alpha, which was founded in 1906 at Cornell University, is the oldest historically Black fraternity in the U.S., according to its website.?

The march will begin at the Ohio State French Field House before moving through Neil Avenue, Woodruff Avenue, 18th Avenue and the Oval, eventually ending in the South Oval, according to the march’s itinerary.

Once the march has been completed, attendees on the South Oval will be invited to watch on-stage speeches by keynote speakers, check out food trucks and listen to a live DJ, McAdoo said.

“[We’re] trying to make this more than just an event surrounding the election, but wanting to bring the entire community out and make it as inclusive as possible, and have fun with us too,” McAdoo said.?

Wilson said the event is open to anyone within the community, regardless of political ideologies — a move that he and other participating organizations hope will draw a large crowd.

“This event is nonpartisan, so we are not shutting down any ideas or anything like that,” Wilson said. “This is a safe space for people to just learn how to get into the ballot.”

Wilson said the march itself is completely student-run, from organizing to participating to simply raising awareness for the event. He said bringing multiple student organizations together toward a common goal was essential for the movement.?

“I feel like this election does affect students the most, and not only that, students and just young people as a whole, we are the largest percentage of people who don’t vote,” Wilson said. “So, it’s very, very pertinent that we do vote as young people because they can literally change the world.”?

With Election Day approaching Nov. 5, McAdoo said highlighting every individual’s right to vote — regardless of education, beliefs, work status or other identifying factors — is what unifies the community and encourages them to take action.

“Just realizing now that we’re of age for voting, and yes, we have a voice too, and that our voice matters, and that just because we might not be in the workforce yet and still in college, that we can still have an impact on what our country looks like overall,” McAdoo said.

This story was updated Sept. 27 at 8:53 p.m. to accurately reflect the organizers behind the March on Scarlet.