Students’ Call for the Johns Hopkins University to Cut ties to Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 Gaza Attack, and a Tribute to Israel

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged a walk out at graduation ceremonies at a few universities over the weekend, while students waved Palestine flags during the speeches.

Morehouse has a long history of civil rights protests and is also home to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Other schools, including Northwestern and Brown, have reached agreements with students to take at least some of their demands into consideration. The latest agreement came Sunday, when student protestors at Johns Hopkins University agreed to take down their encampment – which began on April 29 – after the university promised to review students’ demand for the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

“They feel passionately about the brutality of the violence in Gaza,” Christ told the crowd, adding “I, too, am deeply troubled by the terrible tragedy.”

Israel is now in the eighth month of its military offensive inside Gaza, an operation it launched in response to the Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas-led militants. More than 200 people were taken hostage in the attack that killed more than 1200 people, according to Israeli officials.

Some 500 people ignored warnings and sat in an empty section of the stadium while chanting “Divest from Israel” while listening to speeches at Berkeley.

While students at UC Berkeley have been amongst the most vocal in their calls for the university to cut ties with Israel, recent protests have also been met with accusations of antisemitism from members of the campus’s Jewish community.

Known for being the birthplace of the free speech movement of the 1960s, the university has been dealing with two federal investigations relating to charges of antisemitism since the Oct. 7 attack — one from the Department of Education, the other by Republicans in Congress.

Students protesting Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s commencement address on campus anti-racism and anti-fascist pedagogies

Dozens of students at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond staged a silent walkout during Saturday’s graduation ceremony to protest the commencement address from Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.

The group wrote a letter to the university president and board of visitors saying that Youngkin has intimidated and silenced educators with Anti-racism pedagogies since becoming Governor of Virginia.

The letter cited a now defunct tip line the governor briefly put in place where parents could report faculty who were teaching “divisive concepts” in schools as well as unraveling legislation which rights groups argued protected transgender youth.

The university has faced criticism by those who are against Biden’s handling of the conflict in Gaza and his more recent comments about student protestors — in which he said some of them used “violent” methods.

The White House had received invitations from many colleges, and therefore Mr. Biden chose to speak at Morehouse. He’s spoken to graduates of historically Black institutions in the past four years, as well as one military academy each year.

Morehouse has strong traditions. It was a place where Dr. King had advanced his understanding of protest and moral leadership, according to current Morehouse students.

There is still anger in Morehouse and other historically Black colleges and universities, but the campuses have been largely free of upheaval and there are no signs of protests or flags flying.

As President Biden prepares to give graduation remarks this month at Morehouse College in Atlanta, a prestigious historically Black institution, the White House is signaling anxiety about the potential for protests over the war in Gaza.

Then, on Friday, the White House dispatched the leader of its public engagement office and one of its most senior Black officials, Stephen K. Benjamin, to the Morehouse campus for meetings to take the temperature of students, faculty members and administrators.

When Morehouse College Students Arrive to Say Goodbye, the Campus Governor Will Not Shine: A Condolence to Howard University Founder and Student Activist Tim Perrin

The reasons stem from political, cultural and socioeconomic differences with other institutions of higher learning. Foreign policy in the minds of most students is secondary to domestic concerns. Most of the people that started on the economic ladder are focused on their education and job prospects after graduation.

The college might seem safer for the president to visit than other places. In Morehouse, the undergraduates are not allowed to stroll on the grass in the middle of the campus until they receive their degrees. Alumni view graduation as a unique and distinguished event, one that is less likely to be disrupted by an eruption of violence than a major event such as a Super Bowl.

Mr. Richmond, who has a nephew at Morehouse, predicted Mr. Biden would speak about the high expectations of the college’s alumni, promote his record of reducing Black unemployment and narrowing the racial wealth gap, and deliver familiar exhortations about perseverance.

The editor in chief of The Maroon Tiger, the school’s student newspaper, asked if they get tear-gassed. Is it possible that we get arrested? That would not be the greatest look for a Morehouse College graduation.”

Vice President Harris graduated from Howard University, which is one of the historically Black institutions. She is often introduced as a surprise guest and greeted with cheers when she arrives at 44 H.B.C.U.s.

Mr. Perrin said that she was just trying to gain an idea of what the students were like when he arrived. What would happen to the narrative?

Source: At Commencements, Protesters Deliver Messages in Many Ways

Political Issues in Higher-College Students’ Protesting: The Case for Two Evil Evils, Not the Evils: a Case Study of Walter Kimbrough

Some students feel compelled to protest, but outside factors can affect their decisions. Roughly 75 percent of students at H.B.C.U.s, including 50 percent of Morehouse students, are eligible for the Pell Grant, a federal aid program for low-income students. More than 80 percent of Morehouse students receive some form of financial aid. In the Class of 2024, nearly a third of graduates will be the first in their family to receive a bachelor’s degree.

The importance of securing their degrees has led some students at Black colleges to decide against protesting.

Walter Kimbrough, who was president of Dillard University in New Orleans for 10 years, said the student body at Columbia is very different from the student body there. “It doesn’t mean that people aren’t concerned. But they understand that they have some different kinds of stakes.”

The stakes are even higher for Mr. Biden because his standing with Black voters has weakened before the election. Young people are less enthusiastic about voting at all — partly because of Mr. Biden’s handling of the Gaza war, but also because they are unhappy with the choice between him and former President Donald J. Trump.

“I think it’s really just picking the lesser of two evils,” said Freddrell Rhea Green II, a Morehouse freshman. Donald Trump, a quote unquote tyrant, is better for me.

Samuel Livingston, a professor of Africana studies at Morehouse, said Joe Biden is probably a nice person. Niceness is not the level of leadership that we need. We need ethical leaders. And continuing to support the aiding, abetting and the stripping of Palestinian land, from Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, is not ethical.”

Source: At Commencements, Protesters Deliver Messages in Many Ways

What Do We Really Need to Know about the Gaza Conflict? Saying Yes to Senator Raphael Warnock in a Morehouse Alumnus

Auzzy Byrdsell is a senior studying journalism and Kinesiology, but she isn’t certain if the police are going to attack the protesters or not.

Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, a 1991 Morehouse alumnus, said that he hoped Mr. Biden would highlight his record and his agenda — but that there was little the president could say about the Gaza conflict to assuage his critics on campus.

“While what he says is important,” Mr. Warnock said, trying to put himself in the shoes of student protesters, “I think much more important is what he does in the future.”