Ferguson Demonstration
George J Lok
Nearly 200 black men and women from across the University posed with their hands up for a group photograph on the steps of Widener Library Sunday evening, entering a national conversation spurred by a police officer’s killing of an unarmed black teenager three weeks ago in Ferguson, Missouri.
Organizers framed the photograph as a critique not only of the shooting of the teenager, Michael Brown, but also of efforts by the media and other observers to question his character and to defend Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who shot Brown on Aug. 9.
"Black bodies in America have consistently had to prove their humanity," Fadhal A. Moore '15, one of the event’s organizers, said as the students came together on the library steps. “Michael Brown was a human being with inalienable rights, just like we all are.”
Organizers said that they hope the photo receives national attention, but only because they believe the exposure will raise awareness of issues of race and identity that have surrounded the controversy and subsequent protests.
