Fisk University. Howard University. Spelman College. These are just a few of the more than 30 historically Black colleges and universities that have received bomb threats this year — many during Black History Month.
The threats have rocked more than a third of the country’s HBCUs in recent weeks, including Nashville’s Fisk University, which was also targeted during the Civil Rights Movement. Investigations are ongoing. But in the meantime, the schools can now apply for federal funding to ramp up security and mental health resources.
“Such acts are designed to spread fear and terror. They also are designed to disrupt the operations and the valuable work that Fisk University and each of our sister institutions conduct,” President Vann Newkirk said in a statement last month. “However, such threats are not new, and we will carry on.”
Fisk had to evacuate and lock down its campus one day in mid-February. Since then, the university has stationed more security officers outside dorms and classrooms, installed dozens of additional surveillance cameras and increased police patrols on the streets surrounding campus. The school has also decided to install swipe machines in all its buildings, so only students and staff with Fisk ID cards will be able to enter.
But the added safety measures at Fisk and other schools have not completely eased students’ minds. Several shared their concerns during a hearing with the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform last week.
Kylie Burke, the president of Howard University’s student association, told members of Congress that the threats have caused stress and paranoia. She has spent the past few weeks working to connect her classmates and teachers with information from law enforcement, as well counseling sessions.
“Howard and many other HBCUs also made the important decision to provide mental health days following the threat, as well, acknowledging the weight of anxiety felt on campus after students were repeatedly woken up with safety alerts, sometimes as late as 2 and 3 a.m. in the morning, constantly leaving us on edge and feeling as if the next threat was all but imminent.”
History behind the threats
The threat at Fisk echoes one more than 60 years ago, when the university’s gym was evacuated before a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. just one day after the home of civil rights attorney and Metro Council member Z. Alexander Looby was bombed.
About 4,000 people had gathered in the school’s gym, according to a Tennessean article published at the time. The Nashville Banner reported that it took 45 minutes to evacuate the attendees, who sang “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” as they filed out of the building.
Dozens of firefighters and police “combed the gym with flashlights, peering under seats, stands and in corners and crevices,” the Banner reported. “No bomb was found.”
When the audience returned, the Tennessean wrote, King assured them.
“The diehards should know by now that bombs will not stop us,” he told the crowd, which responded with “thunderous cheers.”
Bombings were a common tactic to instill fear during the Civil Rights Movement. And while the exact aims of the recent bomb threats are unknown, the FBI believes most were carried out by a group of technologically savvy juveniles who were racially motivated.
“With the bomb threats beginning at the beginning of February, at Black History Month, we believe this and we’ve treated this as domestic terrorism,” FBI assistant director Ryan Young told Congress members. “We believe that this is meant to inflict harm.”
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM