DeKALB – Over 100 people are marching on Northern Illinois University campus Wednesday afternoon in solidarity with Black students after the Center for Black Studies was targeted by racist graffiti last week.
“Be Black, be proud,” chants could be heard as groups of no more than 50 marched from the dormitories on campus, headed to the center led by Anne Edwards, director of the Center for Black Studies, and student leaders from the Black Male Initiative, Black Students United and the NAACP.
“If we encounter counter protestors, we are not going to give them voice,” Edwards said, laying out the rules, and breaking the group into three to maintain social distancing measures and mask requirements. “Stay focused on the mission and what you came here to do. You need to wear your mask at all times. We want to protest.”
On Friday, NIU President Lisa Freeman – who is also in attendance at the march Wednesday – issued a letter condemning what she said was reports of a racist slur spray-painted on the street in front of the Center for Black Studies.
NIU police are investigating the incident as a hate crime, and Freeman stated that the university intends to “pursue all charges available under the law.”
The crowd was still marching as of 1:40 p.m., according to a Daily Chronicle reporter on the the scene, and chants of “No justice, no peace,” and “Black lives matter,” continued.
This is a developing story which will be updated.
Source: The Daily Chronicle
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