A silent march will take place on campus Saturday to raise awareness about voter registration and education.

The Ohio State chapter of the NAACP will hold a silent march Saturday to promote voter registration and education on campus.

Titled “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 about voting rights, said Isaac Wilson, a junior fourth year in aerospace engineering. and president of the OSU NAACP.

“(This is) the same time the March on Washington started, at 11 a.m., for everyone to have the right to vote and the freedom to vote,” Wilson said.

The March on Washington, which took place on August 28, 1963, was a collaborative effort among several civil rights groups in which more than 260,000 people gathered to protest racial inequality in the United States, according to the NAACP. website. It was during this march that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

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

Alpha Phi Alpha, founded in 1906 at Cornell University, is the oldest black fraternity in the United States, according to its organization. website.

The march will begin at the Ohio State French Field House before crossing Neil Avenue, Woodruff Avenue, 18th Avenue and the Oval, finally ending at the South Oval, according to the march route.

Once the march is over, attendees at the South Oval will be invited to watch onstage speeches from keynote speakers, check out the food trucks and listen to a live DJ, McAdoo said.

“(We) are trying to make this more than just an event surrounding the election, but we want to get the whole community involved and make it as inclusive as possible, and have some fun with us as well,” McAdoo said.

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

“This event is nonpartisan, so we’re not ruling out any ideas or anything like that,” Wilson said. “This is a safe space where people can just learn how to get involved in voting. »

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

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

As Election Day approaches on Nov. 5, McAdoo said emphasizing every individual’s right to vote — regardless of education, beliefs, employment status or other identifying factors — is what unifies the community and encourages it to act.

“I just realize now that we are of voting age, and yes, we have a voice too, and that our voice matters, and that just because we may not be in the workforce yet and still in the “university, we can still have an impact on the overall appearance of our country,” McAdoo said.