Hundreds of college students march through downtown Boston to protest racial injustice
The demonstration drew students from 17 Boston-area schools.
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Before several hundred Boston-area college students prepared to march past the State House, then throughout the streets of downtown Boston, they decided to practice their chants at the Gazebo on the Boston Common.
“We pay for education, not for discrimination,’’ said Jordan Hope, a Berklee College of Music student who was tasked with teaching the crowd the chants.
“We pay for education, not for discrimination,’’ the students yelled back in a round, not yet able to catch on to his rhythm.
He repeated the chant, putting an emphasis on different syllables each time. After a few tries, another one of the organizers grabbed the megaphone and shouted, “We pay for ed-u-ca-tion not for dis-crim-in-a-tion.’’
The crowd chanted and clapped along, this time in sync with her rhythm and with each other.
They were ready.
Students from 17 Boston area schools, including Boston, Suffolk, Northeastern and Tufts universities, marched throughout downtown Boston Monday afternoon in the area’s first cross-campus demonstration against racial injustice. The demonstrators shut down traffic as they walked in the street, and were escorted by Boston police officers who biked alongside them.
Jordan Hope, left, leads the crowd in chants along with event organizers Simone Alyse, center, and Sarah Alli.
The event was organized by Simone Alyse, a Berklee student, with the help of Sarah Alli, an Emerson College student, and Taylor Jett, a student at Emerson’s L.A. campus.
Alyse said she was inspired to hold the march because of the demonstrations at the University of Missouri, Yale and Ithaca College, where students have pressured administrators to address racial inequality on campus. The protests at the University of Missouri led to the resignation of the school’s president and chancellor last week.
“The walkout is taking place because we recognize that all of our freedoms are tied together and that injustice against one of us is injustice against us all,’’ Alyse wrote on the event’s Facebook page. “In showing our solidarity with students across the country, we pledge to do our part to end oppression of all kinds on our own campuses.’’
Alyse said students at more than 115 schools nationwide have held demonstrations to bring attention to racial inequality in the past few weeks, but that there hasn’t been a united effort from multiple schools. She and Alli spent the weekend planning the march and contacted friends at colleges and universities around the country to involve as many schools as possible.
Students from 15 other colleges and universities nationwide, including Brown, New York and Northwestern universities, also walked out of their classrooms Monday afternoon as part of the coordinated effort.
Event organizers Simone Alyse, far right, and Sarah Alli, second from right, during the march Monday.
Most of the Boston demonstrators were students, but a few administrators, including Emerson’s president, Lee Pelton, marched down Beacon, Arlington, Newbury and Boylston streets, before ending at Copley Square.
The demonstration was so large that the words students at the front of the crowd yelled often differed from the ones that were shouted at the back. But, even if the chants became garbled at times, the message was clear.
As they turned onto Newbury Street just before 2 p.m., the students began to shout in unison, “Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter.’’
Storeowners came and stood on the steps of their shops. People walking past readjusted their shopping bags and pulled out their cell phones to record the demonstration. Diners in restaurants put down their forks and looked out the window at the students who danced down the street.
“Tell me what democracy looks like, this is what democracy looks like,’’ they shouted, growing louder as they noticed all the people who had stopped to watch.
Before they approached Copley Square, the organizers asked everyone to stop and join hands. As car horns honked, they paused to take a moment of silence. One of the organizers said it was not only for all of the students of color who face discrimination on their college campuses, but also for all of the black lives lost this year and the year before.
They then continued down Boylston Street, shouting “Whose lives matter? Black lives matter,’’ many of them still holding hands.
Students hold hands during the moment of silence before walking to Copley Square.
Once the group reached Copley, a few students reflected on their experience during the march, and shared stories of the discrimination they face in their everyday lives.
Hantzley Audate, an Emerson student, pointed to the change at the University of Missouri as proof that students do have the power to make a difference.
“We’re all of us together united against oppression and inequality,’’ he said. “You’re the seed that’s planted at your institution to make a difference. Look what happened at Missouri. People used to negotiate with people in power for change, and those students demanded them out. That’s power. How can you make tomorrow better?’’
The students promised to keep in contact to better plan how to address racial inequality across college campuses in Massachusetts. But, before they dispersed, the students shouted one final chant in perfect unison.
“We gon’ be alright. We gon’ be alright. We gon’ be alright.’’
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