Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,
As we begin a month intended to pay tribute to Black history, we must take account of the current as well as historical experience of African Americans. And that account must surely acknowledge and repudiate the kind of threatened violence that some of our sister HBCU institutions within the University System of Georgia experienced this week, when bomb threats were made to several HBCU institutions nationwide.
This kind of terrorist menace is a threat not only to those HBCUs, but to the fabric of education and the democracy that we seek to continue developing through higher education. Now, we must stand shoulder to shoulder with our colleagues and fellow students in condemning the vicious and violent intent of some perpetrators who threaten the learning communities of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Please join me in affirming that our HBCU partners and sister institutions deserve freedom from threats and violence that they face still today, and that our task is to call out tyranny and oppression both past and present. Not doing so, or obscuring that reality, is to miss the point of education and the point of freedom, justice, and equity. Let us each continue to work to advance those values, which is especially fitting in this symbolic month.
Thank you.
Chris
