Howard University students protest war

Hundreds of students at Howard University, a historically Black school in Washington, D.C., greeted Laura Bush on Oct. 27 with a militant protest against the war in Iraq, the criminally negligent and racist conduct of the federal government in response to Hurricane Katrina, and cuts in education, according to a report by the ANSWER organization.

Holding signs that read, “2,000 dead, end occupation: Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti…, money for education not war,” the students began their demonstration in advance of Laura Bush’s arrival at the Howard campus.

The demonstration was called by Youth and Student ANSWER and Cimarrones, a progressive Black student union of Caribbeans and Central and South Ameri cans. It was supported by various other campus organizations, including the Student Association, Howard Amnes ty International and Ubiquity.

The demonstration turned into a confrontation as university officials working with Secret Service and D.C. police threatened to arrest the students unless they moved. “They are trying to force us to disperse or at least move back 30 feet, but we in the Black community have been told to move for 300 years,” said Eugene Puryear, a coordinator of Youth and Student ANSWER and a Howard sophomore.

The HU protest was one of hundreds that local anti-war organizations held in cities, towns, college campuses and high schools across the country as the 2,000th U.S. soldier was killed in Iraq, in addition to an estimated 100,000 Iraqis.

—Report and photo from ANSWER