"We want them to know we're fighting with you", said an organizer of the rally.
University of Missouri (MIZZOU) students cited claims of racism on their campus that they say went unaddressed by university officials, most notably the university's president Timothy Wolfe. The students' protest led by members of the university's football team, and others at the school, led to Wolfe's resignation.
Reports indicate death threats had been made to students by a MIZZOU student.
"This could be us", the VCU organizer said to a gathering of hundreds of students. "What they're dealing with we could be dealing with right now."
Nineteen year-old Hunter Park, was charged with making terrorist threats on social media.
More video.
The VCU rally bought out representatives from the office of the president who addressed student concerns that they say include the lack of teacher diversity at the school.
"I have no Black teachers", one student at the rally said.
Wanda Mitchell, Vice President of Inclusive Excellence serving as the Chief Diversity Officer at VCU, said her office has been "working to ensure there is teacher diversity at the school" citing that her office has "strategies surround recruitment retention, graduation and promotion of faculty of color."
"We have plans", she said.
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| Wanda Mitchell, Vice President of Inclusive Excellence serving as the Chief Diversity Officer at VCU speaks to the assembled students over their concerns of lack of teacher diversity at the university. |
In addition to lack of diversity at the teacher level, and other concerns, the students also shared their experiences and encounters with campus police.
"I've been to a lot of rallies where there have been rallies for student debt and and homosexual rights, a student said. "Why is there no police presence for that, but whenever there's a rally with a lot of people of color, the Feds come out of, like, the woodwork?", asked the student of VCU Chief of Police John Venuti who was also in attendance to address the student's concerns.
Venuti, who said he was at the rally because he "wanted to be there" and not because he "had to be there", said the police presence is there "to make sure you are allowed and afforded the opportunity to your right to free speech."
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| An emotional student (left) is being consoled by another student after VCU police chief John Venuti referred to the mostly African American students and rally organizers as "you people." He later apologized for the comment. |
Another student shared his experience where he said a VCU police officer asked him for his ID while he and friends were standing on the front porch of a residence. The student said the officer told him to put his hands on the patrol car and offered no answer as to why he was being detained.
Venuti said he didn't know why the officer acted that way, but told the students they could report any acts of bias or profiling to the police at either the VCU police web site or by calling the VCU police station.
In the wake of the events at the University of Missouri VCU president Michael Rao issued a campus-wide email to students on Wednesday supporting the students for taking a stand with Missouri students.
Though other universities have made national headlines, I am mindful that these issues are no less important here. And I urge the VCU community to remember that these are not issues for only some of us, but for all of us. Every single member of our university must always feel free, empowered, engaged and respected—and when even one of us isn’t, then we all lose. That is because we lose the chance to learn from and to be inspired by the experiences of all members of our community.
We must always stand together as one VCU, with one mission: to advance the human experience for all people, through teaching, research, creativity, engagement, and care.
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| VCU students hold handmade signs to show solidarity with University of Missouri students' plight with campus racism. |
Rao did not attend Wednesday's rally, and his email to students did not make clear whether he will attend the November 18th scheduled event which is slated to be both live streamed and live Tweeted, the email states.
Organizers of Wednesday's student rally say they also plan to take a group photo and send a letter of support to MIZZOU's Black student leadership organizations to show their solidarity.
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Also
VCU students "make it real", keep it real.
Organizers invoke a must-win attitude for freedom.
Read about the MIZZOU mess.
Langston Hughes' (born in Missouri) poem, titled 'Youth' was read to the 2012 high school graduating class of Joplin, Missouri by President Obama who gave the commencement address.
The words fitting, and worth remembering, at this time.
We have tomorrow
Bright before us
Like a flame.
Yesterday
A night-gone thing,
A sun-down name.
And dawn-today. Broad arch above the road we came.
We march.
The president said, referring to the hurricane that ravaged the city of Joplin that same year:
"The road has been hard. The day has been long. But we have tomorrow, and so we march. We march, together, and you are leading the way. Congratulations. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America."
**Updated November 18, 2015
VCU students stage walk-in to VCU president's residence, demanding changes.
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