April 23, 2002
Students hold vigil, march, and rally
The night that the newest homophobic and racist messages were discovered in Gardiner House, students came together in protest. They met at the Quad at 10 p.m. for a candlelight vigil, leaving together to march around campus. As they marched, they were joined by other students who heard their protest chants of “Stop the racism, stop the fear” and “Hey hey, ho ho, this racist shit has got to go!” The group stopped on the steps between Northrop and Gillett House to listen to Director of Institutional Diversity Brenda Allen. Allen gave those gathered an update on the investigation and encouraged their efforts. She told them, “We need to let people know that they can’t paralyze us as a community, and they can’t stop us from coming together, and they can’t stop us from moving forward.” Students continued their march into Gardiner House, going through each floor chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, homophobia’s got to go.” The protest ended after a Gardiner resident asked the other house residents to come into the middle room and stand strong. The final chants were “Whose house? Our house!” which turned into “Whose school? Our school!”
The full Sophian article on the protests can be found here (1, 10).
The Smith College timeline of these events can be found here (1, 2).
[Last updated on October 23, 2018]