In front from left, Amy Schmidt-Cowardin, her son Hugo Cowardin, 8, husband Mark Cowardin and son Maxwell, 11, participate in Kansas University's annual MLK Day candlelight vigil and walk to the Kansas Union Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. The march was lead by representatives of KU’s Black Student Union, National Pan-Hellenic Council and Student Senate.

Speakers at Kansas University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration on Monday urged taking action to make the world better, and doing it now.

“We cannot wait for the next Martin Luther King Jr., the next Malcom X, the next Rosa Parks,” said Rhavean King Anderson, a KU track athlete and first-year law student from Memphis, Tenn. “We must be that change ourselves.”

KU’s recognition of MLK Day started at 4:30 p.m. in the Strong Hall rotunda, where close to 100 KU students, employees and community members gathered for a candlelight walk along Jayhawk Boulevard.

The group marched to the Kansas Union ballroom for a reception, music from the KU a cappella group Genuine Imitation and a program featuring several speakers delivering remarks inspired by King.

In front from left, Amy Schmidt-Cowardin, her son Hugo Cowardin, 8, husband Mark Cowardin and son Maxwell, 11, participate in Kansas University's annual MLK Day candlelight vigil and walk to the Kansas Union Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. The march was lead by representatives of KU’s Black Student Union, National Pan-Hellenic Council and Student Senate.

Anderson said that growing up in the south, she was always acutely aware of her race. Because she was black, from a family without college graduates and from a poor neighborhood, she was told there were a number of things she couldn’t do, she said.

Anderson said King was motivated by that word — can’t — and she was, too.

Jomella Watson-Thompson, assistant professor of applied behavioral science at KU, said that as a tenure-track professor beginning her career she was given some advice to focus primarily on her work and family, including young children, to reach her goal of tenure.

Using her attached garage to illustrate, Watson-Thompson said that’s what she did — left work, pulled into her garage, shut the door and turned her attention to her personal life without engaging her own neighborhood much.

She said that attitude changed when a teen neighbor, in her non-crime-ridden neighborhood, was raided for selling drugs out of the house while his parents were away. She felt like if she were more engaged with her community she could have done more to prevent that teen from turning to crime. She said she now leaves her garage door open more, engages more with her community and works to build relationships and trust.

Watson-Thompson mentioned several individuals who didn’t wait to be the change they wanted to see, including King, who had young children. What if he had waited? she asked.

“We all have a role in supporting progress and change,” Watson-Thompson said.

Interim provost Sara Rosen said MLK Day is a reminder that there’s still work to be done. Campus events of the past semester have illustrated that, and as a result, “complacency is faltering,” she said.

Rosen said she was inspired by King’s urging to not be satisfied, always march ahead and never turn back. She said her goal was to provide a KU experience that all will cherish.

“We must continue to use all the methods we have, everything at our disposal … because when one of us suffers, all of society suffers,” she said.