ACE and 63 other organizations today requested that Congress immediately take steps to support and protect historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) following the recent wave of bomb threats made against HBCUs around the country.
The investigations by the FBI and other law enforcement authorities currently underway have identified multiple suspects, but no arrests have been made.
In the letter to House and Senate leadership, the signers ask that Congress work with the administration to ensure that the threats “be fully and aggressively investigated and the offenders prosecuted in accordance with the grievous harm they have caused.”
“These acts of terror deliberately strike at institutions that have a unique significance to Black Americans and to American higher education,” the associations wrote. “HBCUs are targeted precisely because they serve as powerful symbols of Black Americans’ strength and achievement.”
The groups are calling for the prompt passage of H.Con.Res. 70, which condemns threats of violence against HBCUs and reaffirms support for the institutions and their students, to put Congress on record on this matter of national importance.
Because of “the egregious nature” of these crimes and the racist motivations behind them, the associations also ask Congress to “hold congressional hearings on an expedited basis, with a focus on the persistent issues underlying these crimes and an effort to identify ways to prevent future occurrences.”
As ACE President Ted Mitchell noted earlier this month in a statement, “An attack on any of us is an attack on all of us. We must redouble our efforts to work as a higher education community and as a nation to defeat hatred and injustice once and for all.”