BY JAMES B. EWERS JR. ED.D.
I enjoyed my days as a college student. In college, I met students from many parts of America and other countries. As a result, I developed life-long friends.
College was a time for receiving new knowledge, new ideas and new ways of thinking about important events. My teachers were the best academically and they wanted us to do our best each day.
Plainly stated, they cared about us. These times also had with them social unrest which led to marches and demonstrations.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to my college, an HBCU, to encourage us to become involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
Back in the day, they were simply called Black schools.
I will never forget his presence on our campus.
It was a defining moment for me as I was developing my philosophy about social justice issues. During that time, it was important for me to gain perspectives from men and women who had courage and persistence.
My first protest march was in my hometown of Winston-Salem NC at the K&W Cafeteria. The march centered around Black people not being able to eat at that restaurant.
I, along with my friends, were in high school at the time.
Segregation was a central theme in my coming of age in North Carolina. Not eating in certain restaurants and sitting in the balcony at movie the-aters happened during my early days.
Student protests have been going on for a long time. Records and history will show when students do protest, they have good reason to do so.
Students are now protesting in increasing numbers over the Israel-Hamas war. Israel and Palestine have been enemies for centuries. Issues involving land and rights have festered into full scale wars and loss of life.
American presidents like Jimmy Carter have tried to intervene with only short-term success.
Now in this latest battle, thousands of innocent people have lost their lives and hostages are being held. News reports paint a desperate and dangerous picture.
One report about the war in Israel reads, “Since the terrorist organization Hamas launched its attacks on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023 around 1,200 Israelis died and 5,431 were injured. Through retaliation attacks by the Israeli Armed Forces against Hamas in Gaza 33,797 Palestinians were killed and 76,465 were injured.”
These numbers are sad and staggering. Families have been forever torn apart because of this war. Dreams of success have become nightmares of reality.
Students in American colleges and universities want this war to end, along with the dying.
Some student protests have become violent. College presidents like Liz Magill (University of Pennsylvania) and Claudine Gay (Harvard University) have lost their jobs because of their expressed views about this war.
Student protests and police involvement have occurred at Emerson College, Stanford University, Indiana University and Emory University.
The University of Southern California recently canceled their commencement exercises because of possible threats to campus safety. Morehouse College will have President Joe Biden as its commencement speaker. Already, students and faculty are questioning the college’s decision to have him speak. Provost Kendrick Brown said, “From our perspective, really having a sitting president come to Morehouse offers an incredible opportunity. This is something that is in line with Morehouse’s mission and also with this objective of being a place that allows for engagement of social justice issues and moral concerns.”
The war over there will affect the elections over here. Students will have a strong say in who becomes the next president. Mildly put, students are letting President Biden and Vice President Harris know their views about the war in Israel. Clearly, it has become a worldwide topic of heated discussion.
An interesting proposal has been put forward by Senator Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority leader. He has made the assertion to have an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Will that happen? At this moment, there are more questions than answers.
Futuristically, there will be a correlation between the war in Israel and student demonstrations. We will see what happens.
Dr. James B. Ewers, Jr. is a long-time educator who hails from Winston Salem, N.C. One of the top tennis players in the state, he was inducted into the Black Tennis Hall of Fame in January 2021. A graduate of Johnson C. Smith University, he received his M. A. degree in Education from Catholic University in Washington, DC, and Ed. D. degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. He has also done post- doctoral studies at Harvard University and Ewers is a life member of the NAACP and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.
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