Originally Posted: 4/24/2005
The official denominational college for the Evangelical Free Church of America (the denomination to which I belong) had an ugly racial incident this week. The New York Times reported the following:
Scores of African-American and Hispanic students at a small Evangelical Christian college here missed classes and were set to spend a second night in seclusion on Friday, after a series of threatening racist letters spurred their evacuation from the campus. Officials at Trinity International University, a conservative Bible-based school headquartered in this village 30 miles north of Chicago, said three students, two of them black and one Hispanic, had received hate-filled handwritten notes through the campus mail over two weeks.
The officials said they urged nearly 200 minority undergraduates to leave their dormitories after the third letter arrived on Thursday because it included growing threats of violence and was sent within days of the anniversaries of the Columbine school shooting in Colorado, the Oklahoma City bombing and Hitler's birth.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson helped to diffuse some of the tension:
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, who met on Friday afternoon with recipients of the letters as well as other students, professors and parents, praised the institution's record on race and its response to the letters.
"What is painful to me today is to talk to these students - so young, so beautiful - who feel like a target is on their back because they are black," he told reporters. "Today their faith is tested in real time. Will they face evil with courage or will they face evil with fear?"
The Chicago Tribune reported the following concerning how Jackson helped:
Rev. Jesse Jackson said he met Friday at an undisclosed nearby church with some students, professors and parents who are black and Latino.
"It's not just the black students that are targeted here, but the entire campus," Jackson said. "There's nothing about this school, or any place, that makes it safe from violence. People of faith must have courage in the face of these threats."
Amen. It is too bad that college officials needed to be so cautious and remove the minority students from campus. The Chicago Sun Times had a columnist who complained about this. Fortunately, recent reports show that the students did return to campus today with 24-hour security guards being posted. The authorities do not have a suspect as of yet.
Update 4/26/2005: This appears to be a hoax.
A black college student was charged with a hate crime Tuesday for allegedly mailing racist threats to fellow minorities on campus, apparently because she was homesick and wanted to convince her parents the school was dangerous, authorities said.
The hate mail at 3,300-student Trinity International University spread fear among blacks and Hispanics on campus and prompted authorities at the Christian school to move more than 40 minorities out of their dormitories and into a hotel last week.
Alicia Hardin, 19, of Chicago was charged with disorderly conduct and a hate crime. The hate crime charge carries up to five years in prison.
She confessed to police on Monday, saying she was unhappy at Trinity and wanted to leave, said Lt. Ron Price.
This incident (hopefully just an empty threat) shows the importance for conservative Christians to take racial hatred seriously. The administration at Trinity College did even if some feel that they may have over-reacted. Some of the quotes from the students are encouraging.
"It was terrible," said Myleson Collins, an African-American student who was at an assembly Thursday where school officials broke the news of the letters and outlined the evacuation.
"I saw students crying. I didn't know what was going on. I was just praying," he said.
"We got segregated real quick. It felt like the 1960s with Martin Luther King. They didn't tell us where we were going."
Collins, a senior from Chicago, said the latest letter was sent to a friend of his, a black female student who told him what it said. The letter said that the writer had seen the student in church and that she was `lucky' because `I forgot to put bullets in my gun,'" Collins said.
...
"A lot of us are angry that people would [make threats]," said Kim, a white senior in her 30s who declined to give her last name. "It was really sad as we helped our friends get ready to go. That's what makes it hit home."
...
The decision to evacuate was announced around 4:30 p.m. Thursday after the third letter was discovered, Collins said.
School officials told all minority students to gather in the recreation center, where they were told what was happening, Collins said.
"It was really terrifying," he said. "I don't want to go back.
"As we left the recreation center, all the white kids were looking at you, and some of them were crying," Collins said. "It hurt so much for the first time I cried."
...
At a news conference on campus, the president of the student body said the threat "outrages us personally and as a community."
"In general, students feel very safe," said Steven Wilson, a senior from Cincinnati. "They are excited to get the other students back on campus. This is very out of character for our community."
Watson Jones, a black student who was among those evacuated Thursday night, did not attend classes Friday. He said that although his classmates were not letting the situation get them down, "we felt threatened. We were afraid."
...
Several white students at Trinity said the threats brought to life a division no one wants.
Lauren Poierier, 20, a sophomore, said it felt weird to walk around Friday on the largely empty campus.
"It makes me feel sad that the minorities have to go through this and feel unwanted," she said.
Comments