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GeColby Youngblood doesn’t usually answer the phone while he’s driving. But as the North Carolina Central University graduate student was on his way to campus on January 4, he noticed that he was getting lots of email notifications and text messages. He got a call from his friend who worked at the university, telling him that there had been a bomb threat and he should turn around. Once he saw on social media that his institution wasn’t the only one that received the alarming message, fear started to settle in.
“I haven’t been to campus since,” he said. “It was scary. I took off work the next day because I just wanted to be sure.”
Youngblood saw it as a warning. “I think it’s just like a matter of time before it happens and we won’t get a warning,” he said.
The recent string of bomb threats across a handful of historically Black colleges and universities has sparked fear within higher education’s Black community. “This is probably one of the clearest examples of hate crimes based on race,” said Paulette Granberry Russell, the president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education.
A string of campuses, including Youngblood’s, were threatened earlier this month. And a new volley of threats shut down HBCUs on Monday, when six HBCUs, including Bowie State University and Howard University, received bomb threats, prompting them to close or lock down their institutions and investigate. Bowie State announced an emergency alert, temporarily shut down campus, moved all classes online, and advised everyone on campus to shelter in place “until further information is available.”
Albany State University, in Georgia; Bethune-Cookman University, in Florida; Southern University and A&M College, in Louisiana; and Delaware State University also received bomb threats Monday.
The threats also caught the attention of the Biden administration, which said it was in touch with federal law enforcement about the threats.
In early January, North Carolina Central and seven other HBCUs — Spelman College, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Florida Memorial University, Howard University, Norfolk State University, Xavier University of Louisiana, and Prairie View A&M University, in Texas. — were alerted of bomb threats on the same day. In response, the universities ordered evacuations, enforced lockdowns, canceled classes for the day, and alerted local law enforcement.
And though, for many of the institutions, shelter-in-place directives have been lifted, campus communities are still left rattled, uneasy, and questioning their safety.
The rise in threats against HBCUs comes at a time when institutions have been increasingly visible, from HBCU alumni holding high positions in political office to increased funding at the institutions.
While no one has been reportedly injured, the threats themselves send a strong message, Granberry Russell said. “It’s communicating that you’re not safe as a Black person,” she said. “You’re not safe in the hallowed halls of the academy, you’re not safe in your neighborhoods and in your communities.”
For diversity officers, the threats reflect a pushback to the racial reckoning that took place following the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other victims of police brutality. “We’re not moving in the direction that we had hoped for,” Granberry Russell said. “And in fact, I think from the perspective of many, it’s like we’re moving in the opposite direction.”
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