In response to racist murders
Penn State students occupy building
By Andy
McInerney
In a firm show of solidarity against racist death threats,
thousands of students at Penn State University have organized
to demand a safe environment. The courageous show of unity
comes in the face of two murders of Black men and death
threats against Black student leaders.
On April 24, hundreds of Penn State students and their
supporters occupied the student union building. They formed
the "PSU Village" to support the demands of the African and
African American students at Penn State for a safe climate
for Black students.
As of May 1, the PSU Village occupation was going
strong.
Penn State is a university with over 40,000 students in
overwhelmingly white central Pennsylvania. Less than 4
percent of the students are African American.
In November 1999, 68 Black students received racist email
messages. One year later, a number of prominent student and
university leaders, including the president of the student
Black Caucus, received threats by mail.
A series of actions on the part of African American
students demanding safety and an improved climate was ignored
by the university administration.
The tense situation escalated on April 20 when Black
Caucus leader Lakeisha Wolf received a death threat claiming
that a young Black man's body could be found in the woods
near Penn State. That letter provoked an April 21 protest in
which some 40 students rushed a football game. Twenty-six
were arrested by campus police and are facing legal and
university disciplinary penalties.
A week after the threatening letter, the body of a Black
man was found in the woods in Penn State's Centre County.
The students at the PSU Village have accused the
university administration of refusing to take their
complaints seriously. Their demands for increased exposure of
racism at Penn State and the country have fallen on deaf
ears.
"We are here until this is over," Black Caucus member
Nichelle Evans said on April 30 from the occupied student
union.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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