Solidarity meeting to be held in light of racist remarks

5/3/2010
By Laura Podgornik
For 91.3 KUWS

In light of reports of racist Facebook exchanges at the University of Minnesota-Duluth earlier this month, the University Wisconsin - Superior will host a solidarity gathering on Monday.  

Co-President of UW-Superior’s Black Student Union Kym Young says the racial solidarity rally is needed after a pair of students at the University of Minnesota-Duluth was caught posting racist comments about another student on their Facebook walls.

“It’s basically just to show that in this day and age, there are people in our communities who are still fighting against racism and we, as college students, need to stand together and to stand firm with our brothers and sisters at the other campuses to show that we won’t tolerate it on our campus either,” said Young.

At Friday’s Duluth Lynching symposium, more than 40 people heard author Warren Read talk about his book “The Lyncher in Me.” His great-grandfather was involved in the 1920 Duluth lynching.

“If nothing else, the mob mentality is an important lesson to teach. When I was doing a book-signing in Duluth, I had this elderly gentlemen and he had the large picture of the lynching and he put his finger on this face that was standing there and he said, ‘That’s my father.’ And he said that he’d never known anything about this but he said what he did remember growing up is several times his father telling him, ‘Don’t ever get involved in a mob because you don’t know what will happen,’” said Read.

Read said he’s thankful he learned about the bad and the good of his past history. Read has also met and befriended descendants of one of the victims, Elmer Jackson.

UW-Superior’s solidarity gathering will take place on Monday at 10 a.m. between Old Main and the Jim Dan Hill Library.