After a month-long protest, Howard University protests end as students announce agreement with administration
Howard University students created signs during their protest against administration and posted them outside of the Blackburn University Center on October 23. (Taylor Edwards/The Black Explosion)
By: Taylor Edwards and Jalyn Mathis
Howard University students reached an agreement with administration after a month-long protest over housing issues and accountability, announced at a press conference on Monday.
The students protested for 34 days, taking over the Armour J. Blackburn University Center in protest against residential halls being infested with rats, mold, mushrooms and flooding.
“There’s a housing crisis where they’re having mold in their housing, sending them to the hospital,” said community organizer Elijah Dvine. “You’re having rodents within their housing, flooding within their housing, insects within their showers.”
The Blackburn Takeover was organized by the Live Movement, a national coalition of HBCU students. The organization’s mission is to “advocate for education reforms and academic advancement of Black education for all Black students,” according to their website.
Most of the student protesters that occupied Blackburn were part of the organization.
On Blackburn’s doors leading into the building, several signs were hung up. Some signs calling out Howard’s President Wayne A. I. Frederick. Most of the signs detailed the student protesters’ demands for the administration.
“We also got our representation taken away on the board so that’s something we want back, so our voices and activism can still be heard,” said sophomore student and protester Bobbi. “We also wanted immunity because speaking up is a dangerous thing with the consequences so we just wanted to make sure that we are protected.”
The protest began Oct. 12, and students made it clear they will protest and continue to occupy Blackburn until demands are met.
“Honestly, I just want my demands met, even if the majority of people leave, I would rather sleep here than my room that has mold in it,” said Valery, a freshman at Howard University.
Valery is one of the many freshman students who expected a different freshman experience, and instead had unsafe living conditions in resident halls. Students have been protesting, setting up tents, making huge signs and reaching out to administrators to fix their infested rooms.
The height of the protests occurred around Howard’s homecoming weekend, which took place from Oct. 16 to Oct. 24. While homecoming festivities were in full swing on the Yard, protesters set up tents outside of Blackburn days before.
“There’s no such thing as a homecoming if you coming home to mold. There’s no such thing as a homecoming if you coming home to rats. These are the real conditions students are going through,” said Dvine.
It was a stark contrast to see bouncy houses and tables set up for homecoming events when you could see students living in tents just a few feet away. One of the protesters said that some students who don’t rely on on-campus housing don’t truly connect with the protests.
“I walked past the line for all them kids trying to get tickets for the Yardfest and I’m thinking that a lot of these kids don’t even know what’s going on or they don’t have to live on this campus,” said Allen-Golder Carpenter, one of the protesters that was outside of Blackburn. “They’re living in one of these condos downtown.”
Although the Live Movement and the rest of the protesters at Howard have been getting support from professors and other outside support, Dvine calls on the University of Maryland, College Park to continue to support Howard’s efforts too.
“I need the University of Maryland, specifically the BSU, the people who care about Black students at Howard to help us and stand in solidarity with the students,” said Dvine.
After students occupied Blackburn for a month, administration agreed to meet with them to discuss negotiations. The students got the administration to address their concerns, and the protesters agreed to leave Blackburn.
The agreement reached is confidential and will take place after 20 days of negotiations, according to a statement posted on the Live Movement’s Instagram page. The protestors have started to clean and gather materials from Blackburn.
Howard students hope to see changes and inspire other students to use their voices to speak up when improvement needs to be done.
“These students at Blackburn are protesting basically fighting for human rights, the human rights of service and business,” Dvine said.
Howard students' last names were protected in this article and only first names were used.