Campus Community Comes Together to Honor Black Lives

The rain held off last week on the evening of September 3, 2020, for the campus community to remember and honor Black lives, and to protest the treatment of Black people in America. Beginning at Delaney Plaza, those in attendance were encouraged to wear Black Lives Matter (BLM), Brownsville gear, or black clothing in support of the movement. Mask wearing and social distancing guidelines were enforced at the event. 

At Delaney Plaza, students, faculty, staff, and members of the surrounding community were given candles upon their arrival to the vigil.  Sidonie Brown, one of many student organizers, welcomed attendees, saying, “What you are doing here today is so important.” She goes on to say, “No one organization, no one student, took full ownership of this [vigil]. This was a team collaboration, and it is an example of what happens when a student body comes together.”

Addressing the history within the Frostburg community, Brown says, “Please remember that even though we go to a [predominantly white institution]… there is so much Black history hidden in Frostburg State.” She goes on to say, “where we are standing right now is Delaney Plaza, named after one of the interim presidents of Frostburg State University who was Black. Next time you go into the Atkinson Room in Lane Center, William Reader Atkinson is who the room is named after and who marked the integration of Frostburg State [College] in 1969.” Dr. Harold Delaney served as the interim President of Frostburg State University in 1991. He was the first Black executive in the history of the institution. He and his wife, Geraldine Delaney, are memorialized by the Clocktower Quad, which acts as a common gathering spot for the campus community. Harold and Geraldine passed away in 1994, and the Delaney Plaza was dedicated in 1995. 

Mrs. Latisha Cooper, a learning specialist for the Academic Success Network, spoke to the crowd next. “I’m a private person when it comes to my experience as a Black woman because I grew up with parents who went through the integration system. I remember hearing about it as a child, and the names that my parents were called on the bus to school, while they were in school, and on their way home. Yet, I still experienced it myself.” She says that the first time she experienced being called those words, she was in the third grade. “My daughter was called that [derogatory term] in the third grade as well. And I, as a parent, had to hold in my anger and deal with that situation.” Mrs. Cooper goes on, saying, “I am here to tell you that enough is enough. I have three children and I don’t want them to go through what my parents went through, what I went through, and what we’re going through now. Now is our time to stand. Not just as African Americans but as everyone. This is y’all’s fight, this is our fight. It is time for us to come together and standard. No more! It is not a Black, white issue — it is a human issue. We are humans and I should not be scared to be pulled over. It is your time to stand up and lead.” 

Quoting the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she implores the community, “Let them know that you do not judge people by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. We have got to walk in that and state it over and over again and live it. Because we are one. We are one and we can do this…. It is time to let your voices be heard. It is time to stand up to those who are complicit and stay silent, and say, “enough! We got this! This is our time to stand and to fight.”

Mrs. Cooper closed her remarks with the latter half of poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise: 

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

Associate Professor Emeritus Dr. Joy Kroeger-Mappes next took the mic. A faculty member of the Philosophy Department for many years, she has served as an ally to many groups in the campus community.  She spoke of her experiences growing up and learning of racism, and of her white privilege. Most notably, she voiced to the crowd, “Racism had a beginning. It was the colonization of the Europeans of virtually every continent. If racism had a beginning, and it was set up by moneyed people. Then, it has an end. I am angry and I am deeply saddened by the viciousness of the mistreatment of Black people that has persisted for centuries.” She returned to this sentiment at the end of her comments, adding, “There is one race. It is the human race.”

Ms. Jenica Braxton, the program management specialist for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion addressed the crowd following Dr. Kroeger-Mappes. Ms. Braxton began by saying, “Racism is so woven into the fabric of America that when we say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ some hear ‘we’re against America.’

Black is not a country. Black is a color; a color assigned to those people who were least valued in a country that they were forced to come to and build. Today, that sentiment of devalued Black lives is still very much present and that is what we are speaking out against when we say ‘Black lives matter.’ We are saying, ‘remove the biased lenses that our country has placed over our American eyes.'” 

She encourages the group, “When you see Black, see human, not monster. See son and daughter, not animal. See citizen, not threat.” She ends her remarks moved by the group of supporters that gathered in the Plaza, stating, “As a graduate of this university and an employee of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, my heart is filled and I am so proud. I’m so proud to see our students, our future, come together and stand up as one body, not separated by race, politics, organization, and say, “We stand for justice and equality.” 

Mrs. Robin Wynder and Ms. Jenica Braxton were newly promoted in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Mrs. Wynder, the Chief Diversity Officer for the university, was promoted to the position of Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs, and Ms. Braxton joined her in the division as the newly-appointed Program Management Specialist. Following Ms. Braxton, Mrs. Wynder took center stage. 

She began, “In my Introduction to African American Studies course, I was asked by students, “how did you feel after hearing about George Floyd’s death? Were you angry? Were you sad? Were you numb? My response was, ‘all of the above and then some.’ It was important for me to share with the class because they asked the reality of my Black fatigue.

For a week, I cried day and night and had no idea of what was the cause of my tears, my body fatigue, my lack of appetite. And I figured it out. I realized what it was, that George Floyd’s murder was my breaking point. It was sending me spiraling down if I didn’t do something to stop it. It was my breaking point when I decided enough is enough. I had to make the conscious decision to continue pressing forward or to throw in the towel where I stand. I decided to press on.”

Mrs. Wynder engaged the group with stories of the imperfect world she lived through in her childhood, and how her parents challenged the Jim Crow laws that remained present in Maryland until 1964. She ended her reflection with excerpts from Congressman John Lewis’s final essay. 

Dr. Artie Lee Travis, Vice President for Student Affairs, joined the Frostburg State University at the beginning of the Spring semester, on January 29, 2020. In his short time as VPSA, he has already inspired countless members of the campus community. When he took the microphone at the vigil, the inspiration he proffered with his words was no different. He said, “I am your Vice President for Student Affairs here at Frostburg State University. I have a doctorate, but you know what? It doesn’t matter because I am a Black man.” He continues, “That doctorate doesn’t mean a thing if I were to walk out and someone who doesn’t understand the differences here in this country chooses to ignore my rights and my privileges. 

But I am still here in 2020 waiting for the time to come that I don’t have to be worried that Black people will have to suffer through more racial injustice and racial inequality. I am still here waiting for the time when women, Latinx people, LGBTQ+ people, Black people, all people, don’t have to be fearful of the rights and promises that the Constitution guarantees us.”

Looking around at the students and community members that joined him on campus that evening, he expressed, “I have a great sense of joy when I see you young people standing here believing that you’re going to do what is right. This current movement has brought joy to each of you here because the day has come when you do feel that the promise of America is within your reach, and you have the feeling and the ability to be judged correctly because of who you are inside and out.” 

Sidonie Brown returned to the mic following Dr. Travis. She captivated her audience with her spoken word poem, It Was Supposed to Be a Good Day. 

She returned to her sentiments at the beginning of the evening, saying, “Today, we are a part of that hidden Frostburg history that will no longer be hidden. So what side of that do you want to be on?” 

After Miss Brown’s powerful spoken word poem, Lyric Mitchell, SGA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee Chair, and Kaylah Mason, BSA President, joined her to read the names of only some of the many Black individuals who have been victim to police brutality in America. 

“Breonna Taylor. Emmett Till. Philando Castile. Michael Lorenzo Dean. Eric Reason. Christopher McCorvey. Maurice Holly. Jordan Michael Griffin. Nicholas Walker. Bennie Branch. Ollie Lee Brookes. India Beaty. Kendrick Brown. Cortez Washington. Delrawn Small.”

“George Floyd. Tamir Rice. Sandra Bland. Dominique Silva. India Kager. Jeremy Lett. Julian Dawkings. Dason Peters. David Joseph. Bettie Jones. Andre Murphy Jr. Dennis Grisby. John T. Wilson III. George V. King. Walter Scott.”

“Jacob Blake. Ahmaud Arbery. Eric Garner. Alton Sterling. Oscar Grant. Andre Horton. Jesse Quinton. Craig Demps. Marlon Brown Lavall Hall. James Leatherwood. Cynthia Fields. Nicholas Walker. Stephan Murray. Dominique Clayton.”

As Brown, Mason, and Mitchell read names aloud, candles, which had been passed out at the beginning of the event, were lit.  The ever-present breeze blowing through campus did not stop the sea of students, faculty, staff, and community members from honoring the many Black lives lost.  

Brown, Mason, and Mitchell, Black female student leaders on campus, then lead the group on a march from Delaney Plaza to the newly-installed Brownsville/Park Avenue Monument in the Upper Quad. 

“No Justice, No Peace!” Chants rang out as the group ascended the stairs up to Compton Science Center and then were guided up to the monument. 

Attendees then centered around the newly-dedicated Brownsville/Park Avenue Monument, where student organizers stood behind the railings of the monument to address the crowd. They invited anyone who wanted to speak to come up to the monument and offered support for the many students and community members who were overcome with emotion. 

Notably, Frostburg State University Police Chief Cynthia Smith spoke to the crowd. She said, “We have to work together for [the police brutality] to stop. My expectation is that my officers treat every individual with the dignity they’re entitled to as a human being.” Chief Smith expressed her pride and gratitude in being among the community members who came to support the event, saying, “I want you to keep up the fight.” 

Many students came forward to speak about their experiences or to offer support for the movement, as well as some members of the community. One student said, “A week after getting my first permit, my mom had ‘the talk’ with me; the talk about what to do if a policeman ever pulled me over. This is the second time in my life I had ever seen my mom cry in front of my face.”

“The first,” they continue, “was when her grandmother died. My mom mourns the loss of her child that she has not yet lost. She has currently four children. I know every day that I am up here and I am far away from her, she fears for my life that one day, she will get a call from the school saying, ‘Your child has died.’ When I was going into my first year of college, she had the other talk about what to do when I am surrounded and feel like I need her, and if she is too far away… Every day she is afraid for my life.”

Students addressed their peers, imploring them to vote and to engage in hard conversations. 

Tifani Fisher, Vice President of the Allegany County Chapter of the NAACP, addressed the crowd through tears. She said, “I am a Brownsville descendant, and to have a group of students come into my hometown in a force, peacefully, and bring an awakening to a community that has been so quiet for so long, I am so filled up. I can fell my ancestors — which is why we have no rain– singing in the heavens right now. You may not be a part of Brownsville lineage, but being here on this campus, you are a part of the Brownsville story. You are changing things just by your willingness to work together. So from everybody in Frostburg that lives here, we say thank you.”

The power of the evening and the emotions of those who contributed to the conversation were heard by many, even those who were not able to join in person. The night was truly an awakening for the Frostburg community, as students and community members came together to honor so many Black lives lost. It was an enlightening evening, and a testament to the true impact the students can have when they come together. 

This call for justice was not the first, and certainly will not be the last at Frostburg State. As the students continue to push for equal justice, time will only tell how powerful the unity of our students will become.