More than 100 campus community members gathered in Northern Illinois University's MLK commons for the annual three-block march.
Speakers emphasized the need for unity amid changes to immigration law and recent hate crimes nationwide.
David Becker is with “Welcoming Western Counties.” The coalition promotes solidarity and sanctuary in northern Illinois.
Becker said more people need to get involved in the discussion of promoting unity.
“I think there’s a lot of folks in the middle who just have never really given it a lot of thought," he said. "And so, they enable some of these things to go forward because they don’t see it as pertinent to their daily lives.”
Vernese Edghill-Walden, NIU’s Chief Diversity Officer, said the event kicks off a series of diversity dialogues to spark conversation on topics like political differences.
“We may not always agree," she says, "but we at least have to be able to listen to another, and hear the other person’s perspective. And perhaps, sometimes, agree to disagree, but be respectful about it.”
NIU is holding its next diversity dialogue 7 p.m. Thursday night at the Altgeld Auditorium.