MORE THAN JUST A HOUSE On Friday, Nov. 13, days after protests and racist threats flared up on the University of Missouri campus, about 20 Black students at Northwestern met at the Black House. They had decided a few days earlier that they wanted to stand in solidarity and advertised their action over a Facebook event page, where over 1,100 expressed interest in attending. “I looked out the window and there were a ton of people standing outside,” SESP sophomore Michelle Sanders says. The porch of the house quickly turned into a platform for voicing Black students’ frustrations. As momentum picked up, the gathering, about 300 strong, marched up Sheridan Road to Technological Institute. Although prompted by the events in Missouri, they marched for more than Mizzou. They marched for Northwestern, for Black students everywhere, for Black lives everywhere. Communication sophomore Sarayah Wright, who was part of the march, described it as both raw and thoughtful. Black cis, queer and trans women as well as femmes (those who do not necessarily identify as women but whose gender presentation leans toward femininity) were called to the front. “Those people are often erased,” she says. Chanting slogans like “Mama, Mama, can’t you see, what Northwestern’s done to me,” students gathered in front of Tech before continuing to the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion, where a groundbreaking ceremony was taking place for a $260 million sports complex. To the protesters, the ceremony demonstrated a lack of resolve by administrators to address issues that were important to them, pointing out the disconnect between which buildings the University chooses to renovate and which they do not. “We could tell where the administration’s priorities were,” Wright says. Students stood outside curtains that walled off the ceremony, directing their demands at President Morton Schapiro in an effort to disrupt the event. “They ended up trying to speak over us and diminish that we were there,” Sanders says. “After a while, we got fed up, went through the curtains and took over the space.” Wright and Sanders described audience members pushing and shouting, telling them to “go home,” “be respectful” and that “your time is up.” “You don’t have to be yelling slurs, but we’re hearing the same thing,” Wright says. “You’re looking at us and seeing a violent, angry Black threat.”
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Photo courtesy of Northwestern University Archives
A symbol of hope and solidarity for generations of Northwestern’s Black community. BY NAIB MIAN
