‘Because you love Howard University’: A Call to Protect Black Minds on World Mental Health Day

“[[W]hen people ask why you are fighting against your own school, when they try to tell you that you are wrong to protest [….], you have to tell them it’s because you love Howard University, because you love Black people… We fought too hard to let our Black institutions end up in the hands of people who oppose us.” – Sonia Sanchez to April Silver A year ago, I was couch-hopping, trying to find housing after black mold took over my apartment and my car tires were stolen. It felt like everything was against me. Yet, I was thriving professionally, negotiating contracts and honing skills at my big boy agency job. Little did I know, these experiences were preparing me for a much bigger fight: representing myself against Howard University in a legal battle that started six years earlier. In October 2023, I reached a historic settlement with Howard on a claim I brought to the DC Office of Human Rights in 2018. After a mental health crisis during my freshman year, the university forced me to withdraw instead of offering support, and ultimately refused to honor the withdrawal, failing me for the semester. With no legal representation, I fought...