St James AME Church, Elgin, Illinois

NCCU to hold ‘Hands Up’ rally

to protest Ferguson shooting
 

Local university students are joining “hands up, don’t shoot” demonstrations that have been staged around the country in protest of the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in Ferguson, Missouri.

The N.C. Central University Black Law Students Association is holding a “Hands Up Rally” on Monday on the steps of the Turner Law Building on the campus in Durham.

Irving Joyner, a professor at the N.C. Central University School of Law, will make remarks along with Starr Battle, chair of the N.C. Central Black Law Students Association, and Bianca Williams, Student Bar Association president.  The group will take a photo on the steps of the building, according to a news release from the university. Participants have been asked to wear black.  The protest echoes a similar demonstration at Howard University in which students stood posed for a photo, their arms in the air. The image was sent out on Twitter with the hashtag “Don’t shoot.”

On Wednesday, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Black Student Movement leaders organized a demonstration in the Pit. Students stood with their arms raised and their faces stoic, according to reports from The Daily Tar Heel.  UNC-Chapel Hill Black Student Movement President Trey Mangum said they saw photos being taken by students at Howard, Norfolk State University, and by law students involved in a black student group at Harvard University. Mangum said the photo exemplifies a feeling that they don’t want to feel threatened just because they’re young and black.

“Basically what we wanted to exemplify in this photo (is) we’re normal people just like everybody else,” he said. “Just because of our skin color doesn’t make us any different. Just because we look different, we may act a certain way, look a certain way.”

He said that’s what they think is the “key problem” with the events in Ferguson. “We thought it was important to have it on a college campus,” he said. “Even though we’re young college students, some people have this stigma toward us,” he added.  Protestors in Ferguson have chanted “Hands up! Don’t shoot” in multiple demonstrations that have involved clashes with police.

http://www.heraldsun.com/news/localnews/x1145200315/NCCU-to-hold-Hands-Up-rally-to-protest-Ferguson-shooting

Submitted by

Mrs. Starr Battle - 3rd Vice President

Connectional Lay Organization

African Methodist Episcopal Church