At the Atlanta University Center, a march was held in solidarity with recent protests and demonstrations across the country. On Saturday, January 31, students from Clark Atlanta University, Morris Brown College, Morehouse College, and Spelman College met outside of the Robert W. Woodruff Library under the pavilion and prepared their signs for the march.
What began with a dozen students quickly became 50-60 students marching their way from their incubator of education, a safe space for many of them who are from places beyond Georgia, and on to the Georgia State Capitol.
Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice
The three student organizers behind the march told The Atlanta Voice that the purpose of the march was not only in opposition to this country’s immigration policies, but also state-sanctioned violence similar to what has taken place in Minnesota following the deaths of two Americans involved in ICE-related and Border Patrol-related shootings, and policies that harm members of the Black community.
Meyunna Montgomery, a student organizer and the president of the Accountability Initiative, an on-campus organization, made sure marchers checked in via the QR code and picked up hand warmers before the march began. “No sign in, no hand warmers,” she shouted through the megaphone she wielded.
Montgomery is from Atlanta and knew she would participate in an anti-ICE, anti-administration March, rally, or protest at some point. “I have been protesting my whole life. As a woman, as a Black woman, as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I’m being targeted every single day,” she said.
Fellow student organizer A’Nija Hughley, a native of St. Louis, said she came to school in the Atlanta University Center for moments like these.
“I want to do this. I feel like it’s a part of our role to be a part of these movements,” Hughley said.
Myanna Garrison of Baltimore was the third student organizer involved. Watching the number of marchers grow from a small group to a small army, she walked around saying to herself, “Wow, wow, wow.”
“As a part of the Atlanta University Center, we’re founded in activism,” Garrison said. “It’s contradictory to not be a part of movements like this. This is what you signed up for.”
Both campus security and officers from the Atlanta Police Department (APD) provided a security detail for the marchers. A half-hour before the march began, APD Lt. Bailey came over to Garrison, Hughley, and Montgomery to go over the march route and safety plan. The safe word for the day was “claws.”
A female student wearing a black sweatshirt with the words “Black, Bold, Beautiful” picked out a sign to carry and joined her friends, who were waiting for the march to begin. Adeed Boreden, a Morehouse student from Chicago, grabbed a sign and handwarmers. He said he came to Morehouse for what he called “Good trouble” like this.
“There is no way I go to Morehouse, and I’m not participating in this march,” he said. “No way.”
Montgomery stood atop a small wall outside the pavilion and asked for everyone’s attention. She shared the safe word, repeated the march route, and thanked them for participating. She is majoring in political science and has a goal of being a Georgia State Representative or State Senator one day. “This is where I get my experience,” she said of social activism. “When you apply to be a student in the AUC, you have to be included in the movement. I’m always going to be on board.”
The march was nonviolent, without incident, and completed at the State Capitol on time.
The post AUC Students March to the Capitol in nonviolent protests to ICE policies appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.