Higher Education Community Calls on Congress to Address Threats to HBCUs – American Council on Education

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The investigations by the FBI and other law enforcement authorities currently underway have identified multiple suspects, but no arrests have been made.
In the letter to House and Senate leadership, the signers ask that Congress work with the administration to ensure that the threats “be fully and aggressively investigated and the offenders prosecuted in accordance with the grievous harm they have caused.”
“These acts of terror deliberately strike at institutions that have a unique significance to Black Americans and to American higher education,” the associations wrote. “HBCUs are targeted precisely because they serve as powerful symbols of Black Americans’ strength and achievement.”
The groups are calling for the prompt passage of H.Con.Res. 70, which condemns threats of violence against HBCUs and reaffirms support for the institutions and their students, to put Congress on record on this matter of national importance.
Because of “the egregious nature” of these crimes and the racist motivations behind them, the associations also ask Congress to “hold congressional hearings on an expedited basis, with a focus on the persistent issues underlying these crimes and an effort to identify ways to prevent future occurrences.”
As ACE President Ted Mitchell noted earlier this month in a statement, “An attack on any of us is an attack on all of us. We must redouble our efforts to work as a higher education community and as a nation to defeat hatred and injustice once and for all.”

Attending an HBCU Has Always Been an Act of Courage
The Atlantic | Feb. 4, 2022
HBCU Bomb Threats Are a Painful Reminder of Past Anti-Black Violence, Students Say
USA Today (sub. req.) | Feb. 12, 2022
Amid nationwide enrollment drops, some HBCUs are growing. So are threats.
The Washington Post (sub. req.) | Feb. 11, 2022
School Leaders Say HBCUs Are Undeterred After a Series of Bomb Threats
NPR | Feb. 8, 2022

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Gilliam Nii Lighter

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