Members of the community gathered on Monday morning to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. through art and speech, before marching from Peace and Justice Plaza to First Baptist Church.

Madrid Smith shared his spoken word poetry with those gathered at the plaza.

“Some of our best leaders are dead, but they’re not gone,” he said. “They may have passed, but they passed the baton. Now it’s our job to carry on.”

Many continued with the message of activism and nonviolent protest, including Tyler Swanson, a recent graduate of NC A&T who was arrested during the Moral Monday protests.

“It’s our time now,” Swanson said. “Now is the time for young people to rise up, to answer the call, to make sure that one day we can live in a nation where we’re not being scrutinized by the color of our skin or our religion.”

Those attending the rally then walked a mile from the plaza to First Baptist Church for a worship service celebrating the holiday.

Dr. Reginald Hildebrand, associate professor of African American Studies at UNC, gave the keynote address at the service.

Hildebrand discussed King’s life and legacy, as well as issues America faces, including poverty and what he called an “addiction to violence.”

“I believe if King were alive we would have seen this great man weep right here in Chapel Hill,” he said. “For precious, little one-year-old Maleah Williams.”

Also in attendance was Dr. Marion Phillips, who said he took the six o’clock train the morning of August 28,1963, to attend the March on Washington.

“I kept listening to the crowd as (King) spoke,” Phillips said. “Everything before then, there was a sort of ‘maybe this’ or ‘maybe that’ but as Dr. King spoke, knowing that these people had come from jails and prisons, and then to hear them in the black American call and response, I could hear them beginning to respond.”

He said he was arrested four times for participating in civil disobedience protests and said he was encouraged because he sees the Moral Monday as part of the same movement Dr. King started.