Howard Students Protest as Bushes Visit Campus

Photo credit: Maya Gilliam/The Hilltop Howard University President Patrick Swygert walked among the student protesters, asking them to follow him.

By Ruth L. Tisdale
Black College Wire

David McDuffie, a Howard University student, couldn't take it anymore. Fed up with having to use back doors and side doors and frustrated by not knowing why his campus was taken over by the Secret Service, McDuffie and others were determined to take back the campus they felt had been stolen from them.

Linked arm in arm, McDuffie and 50 others marched 100 yards from Howard's administration building to the gate near Rankin Chapel and demanded to be let on the Yard.

"They made me feel as if I didn't have a right to be here," said McDuffie, a senior marketing major. "We have a group of students here and we are taking a stance."

Although campus police pushed him down and forced his signs out of his hands, McDuffie found his way to the flagpole and the Oct. 27 protest began.

What started as a demonstration of 50 students standing around the flagpole in the coldness of fall ended with a protest lasting five hours, with more than 200 students demanding that first lady Laura Bush leave Howard.

The first lady was on campus with 500 others to conduct a session of the White House Conference on Helping America's Youth. Howard officials called the conference a great success and said the first lady stayed an extra 20 minutes because of the vast amount of information being provided.

Some students who walked to classes early in the day were surprised to see parts of the campus blocked off, as well as notices that Blackburn Center, site of the conference, would be closed the entire day.

"It's an inconvenience. They should have told us ahead of time," said Monica Nelson, a junior psychology major. "It doesn't make any sense to not have said anything; and now that we're inconvenienced," the university "can't do anything about it."

Students who were able to make it to classes grew discontented as security tightened. One situation became particularly tense when a group of about 100 students were held in Locke Hall, which contains offices and classrooms, for about half an hour as the first lady and President Bush arrived. "People have things to do," said Grace Maupin, a freshman business management major. "I have to go to work. I can't tell my manager that I was locked in the school."

Students began organizing a protest.

"How do you use our facilities and not invite us?" asked April Jones, a senior communications major. "We are protesting that and the Bush administration."

As students broke the campus police barrier, protest organizers were telling students that silence would get the attention of administrators more than speaking would.

"There is power in silence," said Radiance Salem, a protest organizer. "This march isn't about voicing one particular view, but about everyone joining in representing their own views. We don't want to attract people, but people can come to the flagpole and stand for what they believe in."

Hassan Minor, senior vice president of the university and the person responsible for the event, told those gathered that lack of space was one of the reasons they were not included in the conference.

"They wanted to have 700 people here, but the ballroom just couldn't hold that many," Minor said, adding that Cramton Auditorium had been open to students to view the conference, but only five people showed.

Minor also said the reasoning behind the closures and the rerouting of students was the Secret Service's need to protect the first lady.

"They wanted to close the whole campus, but we didn't agree to that," Minor said. "Unfortunately, we live in a post 9/11 world where they have to make decisions at the last minute."

As the crowd grew larger and larger, Tony Medina, an English professor, spoke, and in a profanity-filled speech told the group they needed to organize to get Howard to listen to some of their demands.

"You don't think that war in Iraq is going raise your tuition?" Medina said. "We all need to mobilize and say that we are not going to pay tuition until they meet our demands."

As more and more joined the protest, the silence broke as students, linked arm in arm, shouted "Back door, no more" and circled around the campus before stopping a few feet away from the motorcade that carried the first lady.

Tensions rose as administration officials began telling students to back up 5 feet. The crowd vehemently cried no.

"I don't care if you protest, but I am interested in your safety," Franklin Chambers, vice provost of student affairs, said. "I am not worried about you going to jail, I am worried about what else they will do if they feel that the first lady is threatened," he said, speaking of the Secret Service.

Even with the arrival of Howard President H. Patrick Swygert, students still refused to leave. Swygert pleaded with the group to follow him to the flagpole, where security officials said students were allowed to protest. Swygert began walking into the midst of students, telling them to follow him.

At one point, he stopped in front of a student and said, "follow me."

"These people who would put you in harm's are not looking out for your interests," Swygert said, clutching the student's arm.

The student, who wished not to be identified, stood firm and began to cry.

"He doesn't know me," she said. "He doesn't know what I've been through or what my family has been through. He doesn't know why I have to stand here."

Standing on the front lines of the protest, Amanda Lewis, a Howard alumna and graduate student, said she was there because of her father, who is in the military.

"It was because of racism that he is getting shipped off to Iraq in January 2006," Lewis told the crowd without further explanation. "I am here to tell them that they don't own him and they don't own me."

Though angry with the president and first lady over many issues, students said they were equally upset with university officials for allowing the visit to take place on Howard's campus. "It amazes me how far we have gotten away from the spirit of activism at this university. Instead of acknowledging the wrong, we whip out our new china and fresh suits to accommodate our guest," said Whitney Boggs, a junior broadcast journalism major. "They did right not telling us, but as I was always taught, everything that is done in darkness will surely come to the light."

As tensions grew over the closeness of the protest to the Blackburn Center, Howard officials repeatedly tried to find compromises to rectify the problem, suggesting that the protest be moved back to the flagpole.

As it became clear that students would not move from the protest line that they had formed, Chambers told the front line to link arms and prevent others from rushing toward the motorcade.

So linked, protesters swayed to the sounds of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" and "This Little Light of Mine."

Temperatures dropped a few more degrees as the final song, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around," rang in the air as the motorcade carrying the first lady left the university.

Swygert said he was proud of the way the students exercised their First Amendment rights.

"This is a teaching moment for all of us," he said. "I hope we come out of this a stronger University."

Ruth L. Tisdale, a student at Howard University, is editor-in-chief of the Hilltop. Hilltop staff members contributed to this report.

Posted Nov. 2, 2005