Becca LundBerg News Editor he Hampden-Sydney student will behave as a gentleman at all times and in all places,” states local Hampden-Sydney College’s (H-SC) early 19th century Code of Conduct. A group of H-SC students reportedly broke this code last Tuesday.
In response to the announcement of President Barack Obama’s Nov. 6 re-election, about 40 H-SC students shouted racial slurs, threw bottles and shot fireworks at the college’s MSU house, reported college officials.
The MSU is an organization that aims to educate the H-SC community on different cultures and backgrounds. MSU has a house on the college’s Fraternity Circle where 10 of the organization’s members reside.
Thomas Shomo, H-SC director of Marketing and Communications, said the incident is still under investigation. “It is our desire to identify any individuals who have specifically violated the code of student conduct,” he said.
According to a statement released on the all-male college’s Facebook page on Nov. 7, the riot lasted about 45 minutes. H-SC President Dr. Chris Howard, the college’s first African- American president and Dean of Students Dr. David Klein, PhD, went to the scene after students broke up the riot to question anyone with knowledge of the occurrence.
On Nov. 7, Howard held a town hall meeting with approximately 300 H-SC students, faculty and staff in attendance to address what the college called a “harmful, senseless episode.” The riot at the college of 1,106 men have garnered national media attention from publications such as The Washington Post, USA Today and The Huffington Post.
At roughly the same time H-SC students were approaching the MSU, students at the University of Mississippi started a similar riot involving about 400 students, reported multiple news outlets.
H-SC junior Davonté Bradley is an African- American and open Obama supporter who felt threatened by the riot. Bradley said he initially stayed in his dorm room because of the commotion he heard outside.
MSU member Kiel Powell and President's Leadership Council member James "Bluefield" Lilly also openly support Obama. They too felt threatened and temporarily left campus.
When they first stepped outside after Obama's re-election, they said they heard what they originally thought were gunshots. The sounds they and Bradley heard turned out to be fireworks.
Powell and Lilly said they then moved Powell’s car to another location because of the pro-Obama stickers prominently displayed on his vehicle. They decided to visit the MSU house next to celebrate Obama’s win; the racial slurs began soon after.
According to Powell, as he and Lilly — who are both white — approached the house, one student said, “Yeah! Finally! Somebody is going to take it to those n------! Go kick their asses!” When Powell told the student he was not going to harm the MSU house residents, he said the student started spewing hateful speech toward him.
Powell and Lilly said they entered the house and spoke with the MSU students about the election. Lilly had to leave shortly after and upon entering his dorm, he heard shouting outside. He left his dorm once again and saw a student who looked “pretty drunk” shooting fireworks at the ground.
“There was a lot of alcohol involved that night,” Powell added.
David Coe, the African-American president of MSU, came to the scene after one of his housemates called and told him what was going on. Shortly before he walked into the MSU house, one student in a group of several others directly addressed him and said, “F--- you.”
Coe said he was shocked and simply replied, “What?” to which the student responded, "Nothin' man, just f--- you n------." Coe retreated and went inside the MSU house where six of his housemates told him they had recently heard shouting and glass shattering and hitting the house. He called to notify campus police of the situation before he and the others went outside to address the situation.
At that point, Coe said there was glass being thrown and fireworks going off all around him. He said those involved included individuals from several fraternities on campus. “I told them, ‘I don’t care who won the election, but you’re not going to threaten us or try to harm us, and you’re not going to disrespect us.’”
Coe then turned to the student who directed the racial epithet toward him and said, “Don’t you ever say anything like that ever again to me in your life.”
The students who gathered in front of MSU house expected a violent confrontation with the MSU members instead of the peaceful way they reacted, Coe said. “It didn’t get the reaction that they wanted, and I think that made that group disband.”
Coe said the irony of the situation was that two of the 10 MSU residents are white and some housemates had even voted for former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He made it clear that these students supported Romney “off his policies, not off his race.” He said the rioting students outside were “racially infuriated.”
As for the riots themselves, Bradley said he was not surprised the event occurred. “We were all expecting something negative,” said Bradley. “I actually thought it was going to be worse.”
Powell said only a small group on campus rbors hatred for minorities. He said the group that participated in the riots does not represent the views of the college.
“This isn’t what Hampden-Sydney is,” he said, “And we’re trying to change the small group that did this. Most of us on campus believe in equality … ”
“I think it was a small portion of the crowd that was actually doing the majority of this stuff,” Lilly added. He said the majority of the people he knows on campus are accepting of all races.
As a member of the President’s Leadership Council, Lilly said the “leaders of the college are doing a lot of work with [the incident].”
According to Coe, who has attended about eight meetings and taken part in several interviews since the event occurred, “I heard the plan of action is to find all those responsible who were at the gathering and punish each one accordingly.” He said Howard has been very active in reacting to the incident.
It is important to Coe that people remember the incident. “I just want to make sure it doesn’t just get swept under the rug,” he said. “That for four years it’s not just the hot topic.”
Coe said the riots could have been avoidable. “I just want people to understand that there’s no place for this no matter where you are. It’s 2012, not 1812.”
