Protests of a Different Color: HBCUs and the Student Protest Movements Against the War in the Middle East

by Al-Tony Gilmore The 2023-24 college academic year was one which witnessed the most widespread social and political student protest movements of the twenty-first century, and one – following the summer hiatus – which may extend into the 2024-25 academic year. No campus could have predicted the unrest and none were prepared for it. It had been more than a generation since any similar protests have occurred. Within days of the devastating October 7, Hamas-led massacre in Israel and the incessant retaliation of airstrikes in Gaza by Israel, students at many universities began to organize protests over the Israel-Gaza war, and subsequently the disproportionate casualties of Palestinians and the larger issue of the conditions of Palestinian existence in Israel during the 75-year old Middle East conflict. College campuses, largely predominately White institutions (PWI) became divided with students engaging in fierce arguments over whether the Hamas militants’ slaughtering of Israeli people could have been avoided; whether Israel’s unrelenting response was justifiable; how Israel has treated Palestinians; the continuing unconditional U.S. support for Israel; and whether condemnation of the Israeli government is a slight against all Jewish people, among other collateral issues. The protests continued to escalate at hundreds of schools with...