OPINION: ‘Black-Out’ rally by JSU students rooted in history aimed at the future
By Ivory Phillips
JA Contributing Editor
On October 7th, an under-reported but significant student-led event having a promising immediate future occurred on the campus of Jackson State University. At 6:00 p.m., upwards of 300 students met at the Lee E. Williams Athletics and Assembly Center. The participants were dressed in Black, resulting in it being dubbed a Black-Out protest rally.
Following the lead of Jakari Holland and leaders of and students from various organizations on campus, they marched down Prentiss Street, while chanting and singing, circling through the campus before reaching their destination, the COFO Building on Lynch Street at the eastern edge of the campus.
There were speeches at the beginning of the march and at the end. Speakers indicated they are interested in promoting justice for Black students and protection for Black youth. The theme, “Black Lives Matter,” frequently echoed through the crowd of participants and was lost on no one.
On the other hand, lest one is tempted to believe the rally was just university-centered or provincial in nature, much of what was voiced easily disputes that idea.
In the course of the event, the case of Nolan Wells was mentioned more than once. Wells was the Black community college student and athlete who, while celebrating with a group of white friends on the Gulf Coast, went missing and was soon found dead. Many believe he had been murdered.
There was mention of Kohen Wiley, a one-year-old child killed in Senatobia when a white police officer shot into the car in which he was riding, pursuing an accused shop-lifter.
There was mention of Tasia Fortune, a young bi-racial single mother found dead hanging from a tree in west Jackson.
There were also the historical references to the lynching of Emmett Till and the police killings of other Black youngsters within the past 25 years. This shows these students are not just concerned about their own lives and the dispensation of justice in Jackson, Mississippi. For them, all “Black Lives Matter” and justice should have no favorites anywhere. As further evidence they were not focusing on JSU, there was the promise they would reach out to Jackson Mayor John Horhn, seeking a townhall meeting to address the matters on a municipal scale.
As the rally organizers were putting their plans together, concerns were raised by some JSU administrators. Such concerns or fears were reminiscent of the days when college board officials pressured President Jacob Reddix and other Black college presidents to quickly put-down, and if possible, prevent the development of such student-led protests. Based upon that kind of history, there were rumored threats that if Student Government Leaders were involved in the planned “Black-Out” rally, they could have their university stipends withdrawn. Since there had been such threats made in previous administrations, many people took these as real.
The students, nevertheless, were able to avert such a consequence. Understanding the predicament in which these administrators perceived themselves facing at the hands of college board officials, the student leaders assured the concerned administrators the rally was purely a matter of their expressing their First Amendment rights as citizens; their status as students should not cancel their rights as citizens; and as students they were speaking for themselves, not attempting to represent the university or the administration. As such clarity was established, the march and rally proceeded, being escorted by campus security officers.
With what those students have learned from the past and with the enthusiasm and determination that they have shown thus far, one can continue to see, in the words of Professor Joy Ann Robinson, “the radicalizing of the Ebony Tower.” Those students are to be saluted, encouraged, and if need be, joined by the community and its leaders.
Beyond that, if these students can establish strong bonds with and coordinate their efforts with like-minded students at the other colleges and universities around the state, they can bring about such monumental positive changes as did their heroic, spiritual ancestors from Tougaloo College, Rust College, and Campbell College, with the help of “bold and independent” students from Mississippi Vocational College, Jackson State College, Alcorn State College, and many high schools, in the 1960s.
