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March 28, 2024

Baltimore and Hopkins activists rally for Charlottesville

By ROLLIN HU | August 14, 2017

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Courtesy of ROLLIN HU Demonstrators marched down N. Charles St. as a show of solidarity for the counter-protesters in Charlottesville.

Members of the Hopkins and Baltimore community joined a demonstration in Charles Village on Sunday evening in response to a recent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

On Friday and Saturday, white supremacist groups marched through the University of Virginia (UVA) and the city of Charlottesville to protest the city’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The confrontations turned deadly on Saturday, when a white nationalist drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring others.

The demonstration in Charles Village began and ended at a Confederate monument of Gen. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, located on the corner of Wyman Park Drive and Art Museum Drive in the Wyman Park Dell.

Baltimore’s Sunday march, at its height, filled two city blocks with people condemning both fascism and white supremacy. At the same time, they marched in solidarity with the counter-protesters in Charlottesville.

People shouted chants such as “Fists up! Fight back! Stop a fascist in his track!” and “The people united will never be divided!” Many held signs calling for unity and support for marginalized groups.

Following the march, demonstrators gathered in front of the Lee-Jackson monument where many chanted “Tear it down!” Members of progressive organizations, such as Baltimore Bloc and the Democratic Socialists of America, took turns addressing the crowd.

Recent University of Maryland (UMD), College Park graduate Yanet Amanuel gave one of those speeches. She is a member of the Prince George’s County NAACP and the Protect UMD Coalition, an association of student groups that formed following the 2016 presidential election to advance the interests of marginalized groups.

She spoke about recent racist incidents on the College Park campus, including the murder of Richard Collins III, a black student visiting from Bowie State University, and the posting of flyers promoting white supremacy. She emphasized the need for campuses to be safe for students, especially in light of the white nationalist rally at UVA.

“I know some [UVA] students and I saw online that they didn’t even get an alert that the protest was coming to their campus,” she said. “That shows another issue with the administration on campuses and how they don’t keep their students safe, especially students of color.”

Kwame Alston, president of the Hopkins Black Student Union (BSU), also joined the march on Sunday. He said that he was not shocked by the events in Charlottesville given President Donald Trump’s rhetoric.

He stressed that Hopkins students should combat racism on campus by challenging those espousing hateful ideas. Alston added that the BSU and the Office of Multicultural Affairs can teach students how to do that.

“The way that [racist] events happen is that pockets of people get to have their ideas and no one challenges them,” Alston said. “These supremacy groups, they feel as though they are above the law and above everything.”

Alston encouraged students to speak up against hatred and bigotry.

“If someone is saying hateful speech and you’re in the room, say to them, ‘Why do you think that is true? Why do you think that is appropriate?’” Alston said.

The Student Government Association (SGA) sent out an email on Monday denouncing the actions and the ideas of the white nationalists in Charlottesville. The email also offered SGA support for students interested in organizing protests.

SGA Executive President Noh Mebrahtu elaborated that SGA should be directly involved in organizing protests.

“We would prefer that students and their organizations come with us,” he said. “We would also like to help student organizations lead these protests.”

Mebrahtu, who also participated in Sunday’s protest said that he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the events in Charlottesville, citing the history of racism in this country. He emphasized that white nationalist groups should be barred from protesting on the Homewood campus.

“There’s a difference between free speech and hate speech,” Mebrahtu said. “When speech becomes a way of intimidating and enacting violence towards groups and endangering people, that’s the line that can’t be crossed.”

While demonstrators rallied in front of the Lee-Jackson monument, artist Pablo Machioli, activist Owen Silverman Andrews and others carried a large sculpture created of a pregnant black woman with her fist raised and placed it in front of the Confederate monument. Machioli, who helped design the sculpture, stressed that the sculpture was a symbol of peaceful resistance to the Lee-Jackson statue.

Members from the Baltimore city government have since proposed measures on removing all Confederate monuments in the city. Second District Councilman Brandon Scott introduced a resolution Monday calling for their “immediate destruction.” The entire Baltimore City Council has since unanimously endorsed Scott’s resolution.

Baltimore City Mayor Catherine Pugh announced that she has reached out to contractors about removing all four Confederate monuments in the city. According to an article from The Baltimore Sun, Pugh hopes to move these statues to Confederate cemeteries and is soliciting advice from mayors around the country on the best way to remove them.

Not all members of the community agree about removing the monuments. Joann Noble, a resident from Remington, argued that the Lee-Jackson statue should stay because it has existed for years in the Wyman Park Dell and is a piece of American history. She acknowledged, however, that others perceive the monument differently.

“Some people say [the statue] memorializes hate,” she said. “But I say that is how they feel about it. I don’t feel like that.”

Mebrahtu disagreed, re-emphasizing that the statue should be torn down.

“There is no reason for it to be there,” he said. “Just knowing that it's there, that other students have to walk past it — it’s just a constant reminder of racism and oppression.”

Eric Bulakites is a Hopkins graduate student studying French who participated in the demonstration. He hopes that the events in Charlottesville inspire more people to take action.

“I just needed to do something. I was really disgusted by what happened,” Bulakites said. “When fascists and Nazis are becoming more and more visible — I think the rest of us need to do the same.”


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