OhHundreds of students gathered on the campus of Jackson State University (JSU) Wednesday afternoon for a rally calling for transparency about the mysterious deaths of young Black people and encouraging student engagement in politics and the fight for voting rights.
As the sun began to set, students, many wearing black, marched across the historically black university’s plaza chanting: “Nolan Wells, Trey Reed, Tasia Fortune, Kohen Wiley, Jaylen Lewis – Black Lives Matter!” All five were young black Mississippians — the youngest, Wiley, was a year old while the eldest, Fortune, was 29 — who died under suspicious circumstances or were killed by police.
The students marched across campus, watched by school police and others, continuing their chants until they arrived at the Cofo Civil Rights Education Center. The building was significant: It was the organizational headquarters of the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964, a largely student-organized movement that aimed to increase black voter turnout during the Jim Crow era, and the statewide headquarters of the Council of Federated Organizations, a coalition of the Mississippi branches of the NAACP, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Congress of Racial Equality, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
“This is the first step in advocacy,” said Camrynn Wimberly, a JSU student and one of the march’s organizers. “This is the first step to collective action and political power. The more this spreads, the more we continually stand up for the same thing and let them know that we will not stand idly by while our rights are taken away, while parents cry, while we wonder if we will be next or not – this is the first step to something bigger.”
JSU students are part of a broader movement of students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) demanding justice and transparency in the cases of Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old black student whose disappearance and death was the subject of national scrutiny, and other black young people who died under mysterious or suspicious circumstances.
Also this week, students from the Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUC), which includes Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University (CAU), and Morehouse College, as well as Langston University, Prairie View A&M University, and other schools, marched to demand answers about the cause and manner of Wells’ death, which remains undetermined, and other suspicious deaths of young Black people.
“They look like me”
On October 1, AUC students held a march in solidarity with Nolan Wells and his family. Thousands of students participated.
“We have seen time and time again the mistreatment of young Black Americans,” said Barhn Gadson, president of the CAU chapter of the NAACP. “We don’t pay much attention to it until we do things like have to march and riot. We’ve gotten to a point where we’re tired of having to fight for young black men, young black women or any other black individual for our lives to have meaning.”
A’Nija Hughley, president of Spelman’s NAACP chapter, said it’s important for all students, but especially those at HBCUs, to speak out.
“As HBCU students, we are in a unique position where we can learn about critical awareness and how structures are built to work against us,” she said. “As students who are the legacy of those who started the civil rights movement and the Atlanta student movement, it’s kind of our job to speak up and then show our support for (Wells’) family.”
Hughley said the idea for a solidarity march came from a student in his chapter who wanted to know what they could do for Wells. Although the students were in Atlanta, they said they showed solidarity with Wells and other young black people who died in suspicious circumstances.
“For us, we either speak up or we shut up,” Gadson said. “Just because we’re not in the same city or the same state doesn’t mean we can’t speak out. And just because there’s a decision here doesn’t mean we’re not going to protest, it doesn’t mean we’re not going to advocate for our community. I mean, we’re the NAACP. That’s what we’ve been doing for years.”
Hughley said that instead of a larger protest where they marched to the Capitol building or engaged the community at large, she wanted to keep the march AUC-wide. “We cannot sit back and watch injustice and say nothing,” she said. “Honestly, it could have been any of us. This one comes close because he’s about our age. He looks like us.”
Wells’ similarities to the students in terms of age and appearance were also noted by the JSU students who gathered Wednesday afternoon. As they marched across campus, they chanted, “Our lives matter. That could have been me. They look like me. Say their names!”
Jakari Holland, rally organizer and founder of the Mississippi Access Project, said the school’s location in central Mississippi made it especially important for students to speak out. “Several people have died in Mississippi under suspicious circumstances,” Holland said. “Jackson State University, being a publicly funded institution, but also the centerpiece of Mississippi’s capital city, we need to take a stand. We need to raise awareness and be transparent in light of what’s happening. It could be any of us. We are young people in Mississippi and we see what’s happening in our backyard.
Like the Atlanta students, Holland was acutely aware of the historical significance, not only of JSU, but of Jackson and Mississippi in general. “Our HBCUs have a long history of people advocating for and opposing things,” he said. “The Greensboro Four, when they were at North Carolina A&T and sat at the Woolworth lunch counter. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The South Carolina State students who were shot. The people who named our place Gibson-Green. It’s crazy how people like to talk about and celebrate black history, but when you live it, that’s where the problem arises because you don’t like people who bring back question societal norms.
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