WASHINGTON — Some members of the Howard student body say their classmates are not politically active enough as is consistent with Howard’s own history. Alumni who have engaged in protests themselves, however, disagree.
Howard protests can be traced back to the early 1900s. In 1934, students wore nooses around their necks to speak against lynching and in 1943, they organized sit-ins at segregated establishments near campus. More recently, in 2021 students garnered national attention for taking over the Armour J. Blackburn University Center for over a month to protest against housing concerns. Today, students protest by using social media, attending country-wide demonstrations and holding campus rallies.
As detailed in his book, We Are Worth Fighting For: A History of the Howard University Student Protest of 1989, Dr. Joshua Myers said that students who protest are part of a long legacy of resisting the idea that people with African ancestry should conform to ideals of American universalism.
“This genealogy of Black radicals pursued self-defined norms and self-determined actions for securing a just society for their group and for humanity,” said Dr. Myers in the book. Myers is a 2009 Howard graduate and associate professor of Africana studies at the university.
Class of 1998 alum Charisse Lambert spearheaded the 1997 protest against the merging of the College of Fine Arts and the College of Arts and Sciences by interrupting Charter Day Convocation and occupying the administration building. She said with social media, student activism has changed a lot over the years.
“[Authorities] can’t silence students like they used to,” said Lambert. “Students have access [to larger and more public platforms]…if they feel like something is not right, they can make their voices heard from a click of a button.”
On April 16, a collective called the People’s University, held a “liberated zone encampment,” where they set up tents on The Yard and chanted. They say they are “an alternative, freedom space disrupting the status quo of Howard University” that was established and led by Black Howard students.
According to a press release from the collective, they occupied the space for nine hours but after being probed for information by administrators and surveilled by police, the group decided to disperse for safety reasons. The release also expressed that the group would return to continue building their movement.
This came after Howard’s Office of University Communications sent out a statement to the university community. It said students were solicited by people unaffiliated with Howard to participate in a non-specified demonstration and that Howard supports peaceful assembly as long as it does not promote hatred, discrimination, or bigotry.
Dr. Ja’La Wourman, assistant professor of English, said student activism shapes a school’s culture because “the voice of the students really hold[s] the power.” She said even though the administration has the final say, if students do not consistently speak up about their concerns, nothing will ever happen.
“Activism is not a one-time thing, it’s about change,” she said.
A week prior, Revolutionary Youth Community—a group in the Shaw area facilitated by Howard affiliates—gathered on The Yard, labeling their rally as a way to “resist against concessions to fascism.” At its peak, it attracted around 70 people including faculty, students and community members.
Several organizations spoke at the rally, including Howard’s non-tenure track faculty union, the Black Alliance for Peace and the Diaspora Pa’lante Collective.
Student representative from the Kwame Ture Society, Latrese Johnson, said even when others do not listen, they still have a duty to keep speaking out.
“There’s too much at stake to just sit back and watch,” they said. “We give consent to these regimes if we abide by the rules.”
Howard freshman and rally attendee Birdie Bachman said she came to Howard expecting students to be highly engaged in activism but is disappointed in what she has seen so far.
She said that students are not prioritizing the right things.
Earlier this semester, Howard determined Starbucks to be in violation of their agreement because they accepted dining dollars as a form of payment when they were not supposed to. To rectify the issue, Howard initially told students they must repay their balance but the university removed all charges following many complaints from the student body.
“If people were to put that energy from the anger they have for Starbucks into literally any other cause on campus, in D.C., in the country or the world, we would have so much power,” said Bachman. “In that sense, it’s a little disappointing to not see more students speak up in the face of the [Trump] administration issues.”
Howard alum Dr. Gwendolyn Jefferson recalled strong momentum and determination from her classmates when she was an undergraduate student from 1969 to 1973.
“The fierceness was very heavy in 60s and 70s,” she said. “We were trying to make things better so that our children and descendants wouldn’t have to go through what we went through.”
Dr. Jefferson said even though Howard protest culture is not as physical anymore, students are still making their voices heard through everyday actions.
Some social media users have critiqued Generation Z for performative activism—engaging in actions to appear supportive without genuine commitment.
Howard student Bijou-Elyse Wallace, who participated in the country-wide ‘Hands Off’ protest, said some students at Howard are privileged to be disconnected from many of the struggles that people in the United States experience.
She also said, even with privilege, there can be burnout due to the current political climate in the country.
“[With] the Trump administration, it’s really hard to keep fighting when you know that there are multiple barriers that are going to stop what you want to have or what you want to change,” said Wallace.
