Roughly 30 demonstrators holding pro-Palestinian signs gathered on The Yard for a demonstration last week. Participants covered their faces with masks and organized an encampment next to Andrew Carnegie Hall, causing a stir that involved police officers.
Demonstrators set up tents, stood and chatted quietly in small circles and sat cross-legged on blankets under the lights of surrounding lampposts on the evening of April 16. Music played quietly from a speaker, but within range of the police officers, who stood and watched from a short distance. Roughly 10 police cars and a few dozen officers lined the street of Howard Place NW, and several K-9 units stood beside their handlers.
University administrators including Dean of the Chapel Reverend Bernard L. Richardson attempted to persuade demonstrators to leave The Yard that evening, according to several people familiar with the matter, but they failed, and demonstrators stayed until the early morning.
The demonstration violated university rules because it occurred outside of Howard’s business hours, which are between 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, according to Howard’s Peaceful Assembly Policy. It launched at 6:15 p.m. last Wednesday and was led by individuals unaffiliated with the university, Howard’s Office of University Communications (OUC) claimed in an email the following morning. There were no arrests.
Last week’s event occurred during a turbulent time for higher education institutions in America. The Trump Administration is pursuing investigations into institutions like Columbia University and Harvard University, accusing them of fostering antisemitism in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests. The administration is threatening billions of dollars in federal funding cuts to the schools. The investigations are a part of a broader federal crackdown on campus activism tied to the Israel-Gaza conflict.
The People’s University, the group that organized last week’s demonstration on The Yard, released a statement, which said the goals of the demonstration included protecting international students and ethnic studies programs. They demanded that ICE be banned from campus and that organizers not face disciplinary and legal consequences.
The group was launched when the demonstration began, their statement said, and is a self-described “collective of revolutionary organizations and individuals which aim to create a space of liberation and community…disrupting the status quo of Howard University,” according to a post featuring their mission statement. The post does not assert whether or not the group is founded and run by Howard students or affiliates.
Howard’s OUC referred to the demonstration as “peaceful” and said that the university supports free speech and open exchange of ideas. The office also noted that the university “unequivocally condemns antisemitism, and any form of hate speech or behavior targeted toward any individual or groups.”
It is unclear whether participants engaged in hate speech or antisemitism, however The People’s University rejected the notion in their statement. The Hilltop contacted the OUC team to inquire about whether there was evidence of these two forms of bigotry during the demonstration, but did not receive answers in time for publication.
A junior psychology major from Maryland participated in the demonstration and preferred to not to give their name or city of origin, citing a fear of retaliation from the university. The student claimed the demonstration was organized by students, and expressed their disappointment with the way Howard conveyed that the demonstration was led by someone unaffiliated with the university.
“It was a way to discredit the fact that students had organized this. Students did have demands, and students did want to start to stand up against how the administration is behaving. There were outside community folks there because we had to call in support,” the student said.
They continued, “The People’s University had always been established as a way to amplify the demands that we had, and create a radical community on campus where we can engage with one another and build community amongst ourselves and movements across the city.”
Jay Jones, the executive president of the Howard University Student Association (HUSA), acknowledged that students have the right to gather and organize, but she expressed concern about the alleged involvement of people unaffiliated with the university and the potential consequences of federal scrutiny.
“Howard has always been a place that has sparked that conversation,” she said. “I don’t think we should silence that or try and kill that spark. But we have to be realistic. We don’t have the same resources as Harvard or Columbia. If the federal government is watching, we have to be careful.”
Howard has a rich history of student-led activism. In 1968, more than 1,000 students occupied the administration building for five days, demanding African American history courses and reforms in student discipline. In 2018, students staged a nine-day sit-in protesting financial aid mismanagement and inadequate housing. Last October, demonstrators occupied the administration building and protested Howard’s alleged links to Israel.
Jones did not fully subscribe to OUC’s statement about last week’s demonstration.
“I don’t necessarily agree with the university’s wording. I think it was very tone deaf, especially considering the moment,” she said. “Being pro-Palestine does not automatically equate to being antisemitic.”
Jones also said HUSA spoke with university leaders about how the protest was handled and is working to determine how to protect students from disciplinary consequences.
“We’ve already begun explaining, especially to the university: don’t do this again,” she said.
Copy edited by Camiryn Stepteau
