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NEW ORLEANS –Despite the all-clear from federal authorities and campus leadership, student anxiety has yet to settle down at several historically Black colleges and universities following a nationwide rash of bomb threats earlier this month.
Nearly 20 HBCUs in five states and the District of Columbia received bomb threats since Feb. 1. In Louisiana, Xavier University of Louisiana, Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge were among campuses that received threats since the beginning of Black History Month. And again on Tuesday, students at Spelman College sheltered in their rooms after another bomb threat — its third this year.
“These are acts of terrorism. The fact that they haven’t led to an explosion, thank God, does not change the fact that these are acts of terrorism,” Southern Poverty Law Center chief of staff Lecia Brooks said Tuesday during a roundtable with university leaders about the recent threats.
“The timing of these threats to coincide with Black History Month was a likely attempt to exploit tensions among some factions of our society,” added Michelle Cooper of the U.S. Department of Education, noting that the U.S. government will not tolerate these attacks which “attempt to divide the country.” Read more.
