Black Lives Matter

Student protests continue to rise at SU, across country
By Ari Gilberg
May 9, 2017 - 2:57pm
Activism among college students is the highest it has been in more than 50 years, according to a 2015 report – and Syracuse University is no exception.

Bea Gonzalez can recall the scene vividly: the protests, the marches, the signs, the chants – all of it.

Student finds unity, compassion in Women’s March on Washington
By Kiah Bennett
January 22, 2017 - 8:56pm
Commentary: Graduate student Kiah Bennett reflects on the comradery she found among the 470,000 protesters at the Women’s March on Washington.

Every direction I turn, my gaze is met with a sea of pink hats and posters. It stretches until met by blurring fog. I am just a little speck with a sign, but rather than feeling lost, I feel hopeful and energized. I feel present and unafraid.

Black Lives Matter lecture traces movement's history
By Cory Fernandez
November 10, 2016 - 1:23pm
The Department of African American Studies spoke about how BLM has been reflected in art and literature at a lecture on Wednesday.

Syracuse University’s Department of African American Studies held a presentation on Wednesday about how the Black Lives Matter movement of today is reflected in different forms of art, history and literature of the past.

The presentation, called Black Lives Matter in Art, History and Literature, was held in 214 Slocum and consisted of three speeches, each delivered by a professor of both the African American Studies and English departments at SU.

Campus die-in demonstrators honor black lives lost
By Samantha Mendoza
October 5, 2016 - 3:32pm
The midday protest drew hundreds of onlookers to the university Promenade in an effort to challenge police brutality.

Syracuse University students staged a “Die-In” Wednesday afternoon at the Promenade where dozens of participants fell to the ground to raise awareness about recent police killings of unarmed black men across the country.

Starting at 12:30 p.m., the students laid still for 10 minutes to represent the fact that only 10 of the 102 cases of unarmed black people killed by police in 2015 resulted in officers being charged with a crime, according to a statement from organizers.

A Southside 'Gentle Giant' leads local Black Lives Matter group, brings hope to Syracuse
By Bridget Whitfield
September 14, 2016 - 8:32pm
Anthony Harper is no stranger to the violence in Syracuse and is rallying his community together to create change.

Anthony Harper sits on a bench near Mountain Park Avenue, hunched over his phone, wearing a black baseball cap, a gray tank top, dark blue denim, and light brown work boots. He stands up, he is 6-feet 5-inches. His arms stretch out like tree trunks with hands the size of catcher’s mitts. His arms are sculpted with hard muscles and tattooed with thick black lines that swirled around his shoulder blades and on to his chest.

Mothers of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown urge students to speak up about racial inequality
By Jessie Yuqing Shi
October 29, 2015 - 11:21am
The women were joined by CNN's Fredricka Whitfield and Sunny Hostin and attorney Benjamin Crump, who all called for better media representation of black shooting victims.

With hundreds sitting in the audience, Lesley McSpadden sat onstage at the Goldstein Auditorium and recalled her last family trip with her late son, Michael Brown. She snapped a picture of him catching a fish. “I look at the picture and see his face,” McSpadden said in tears. “He was a bright kid, and he had a bright future.”

Brown died at age 18 in August 2014 from a gunshot confrontation with white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.