Over a Dozen HBCUs Receive Bomb Threats During Black History Month

More than a dozen historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have received bomb threats on the first day of February, which is Black History Month.

14 HBCUs were the subject of bomb threats on Tuesday, causing massive disruptions across the institutions, with many going into lockdown or rescheduling classes altogether.

Coppin State University, Jackson State University, Howard University, Mississippi Valley State University, Morgan State University, Alcorn State University, Tougaloo College, Kentucky State University, Fort Valley State University, Xavier of the District of Columbia, Spelman College, Edward Waters University, and Rust College all received bomb threats on Tuesday morning.

Coppin State University, which is located in Baltimore outside of D.C., moved its classes entirely online for the day and urged its students to take shelter until authorities deemed the school safe.

But despite the school’s swift and focused response to the threats, many administrators and faculty members reel for the emotional toll such disruptions may have on their students.

“Many of our students in the HBCUs, they are first-generation college students. And they are there to advance their education and to create opportunity– not only for themselves but for their families,” said Sabrina Taylor, the director of the undergraduate program at Coppin, told CNN.

“Now they have to deal with bomb threats.”

Taylor checked in with her students and asked them how they were responding to the threats:

“I wanted to encourage them to be empowered and I wanted to encourage them to realized that even though they are being threatened and they are experiencing adversity, they are walking in their purpose,” she said.

“They are on their path to greatness, and they cannot let individuals who their intention is to cause destruction, chaos and fear and doubt, stop them from walking in their purpose.”

Students frustrated by bomb threats at HBCUs

The threats were alternately handled by the local police or campus police, varying from campus to campus. Jackson State University in Mississippi, which is one of the largest HBCUs in the US, had the Jackson Police Department and their campus’s police team work together to secure the school’s safety:

“The Jackson Police Department and JSU Department of Public Safety have swept the campus and found the threat unsubstantiated. An all-clear has been issued.” the school tweeted on Tuesday.

Calvert White, a JSU student who lives mere minutes away from the school’s campus, was shaken by the ordeal despite the threat being cleared:

“I’m uneasy,” White told CNN. “HBCUs have a long history of physical threats just because of our existence. I think that the threats aren’t individual or coincidental– that it’s a clear attack on Black students who choose to go to Black schools.”