POCATELLO — Idaho State University held its annual walk from Holt Arena to the Stephens Performing Arts Center in honor of Martin Luther King Day.

The walk was followed by a short program honoring King and his legacy. The event included speakers, short quotes from King and musical numbers performed by the ISU Jazz Jam, the university's official Jazz club.  A slideshow presentation of art from students at Grace Lutheran accompanied the musical numbers.

The first speaker was ISU President Kevin Satterlee. He began his remarks about the theme of the event, which is "A Stone of Hope" by stating that hope is one of the university's values.

"Hope is one of our core pillars," he said. "Hope for our future."

Satterlee described the day 60 years ago when Martin Luther King brought people together from all across the nation to call out injustice.

"King talked about hope to the entire nation," he said. "In was on August 28, 1963 when people in communities all across this nation came together to call out injustice."

Satterlee said he hoped that everyone at the university will help to make the community better for everyone.

"We're here today at Idaho State University for the hope for our future," he said. "And about making our communities better, and making a stand that bigotry and racism are not acceptable ever."

The second speaker wasew Webb, ASISU President. He also began by speaking about the theme of the event.

"King spoke of a day when the mountains of despair would be transformed into a stone of hope," he said. "The powerful metaphor speaks of the transformative power of hope and the resilience of the human spirit."

Webb said it can be easy to feel weighed down from the difficulties and division of the modern world, but we don't need to feel that way.

"I believe that like a stone of hope, we have the power to shape our own future," he said.

The keynote speaker for the event was Treyshon Malone, an ISU alum and assistant track and field coach at the university. He began by sharing about his background, which led into his remarks about persevering in uncertain times.

"As we all know, not everything in life is going to be easy for us," he said. "There are going to be times when we feel like life is just against us and nothing good is going to happen."

Malone said that despite the challenges of life, the power of perseverance can help us get through it.

"Having goals, hope and determination, we persevere through those hard times and think to ourselves something good is going to happen," he said.

Malone said that King would be proud of all the progress toward racial equality that has been made.

"His hope was that one day we all gather in harmony, not hate one another and share everything in this beautiful world with one another," he said.

The event ended with closing remarks from Henry Evans, associate director of the office of equity and inclusion and a final musical number from the ISU Jazz Jam.