On Freedom to Speak and Peacefully Assemble...

Get the Point!

As I ZEALOUSLY support "free speech" in the truest meaning of the concept, suffice it to say that I struggle mightily whenever I see peaceful protests being usurped due to the content of what's being said, demonstrated against, or supported!

For starters, I have always found it telling that when the Framers drafted the ever enduring United States Constitution, that the FIRST amendment to that document legalized free speech—and the right to peacefully assemble in protest!

I emphasize "peace" this morning because I know from first hand experience how a peaceful march can turn into utter chaos when "authorities" decide to crack down on First Amendment rights all in the name of "order."

32 years ago today, students from Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, and Morris Brown College staged a peaceful march towards downtown Atlanta to protest the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers who had savagely beaten Rodney King, a Black motorist, one year earlier.

Rodney King’s assailants…

By late afternoon, Atlanta Police Officers, under the direction of then Mayor Maynard Jackson (a Morehouse Man), confronted the student protesters—joined along the way with local non-student protesters—and to put it simply, all Hell broke loose!

Day one of the Atlanta Rodney King protests devolved into chaos after the police moved in to block Atlanta University Center students and locals from peacefully marching into the downtown corridor…

I had been in class and then off to quiz bowl practice that afternoon, and when I emerged from the latter and saw scores of schoolmates sweating while looking disheveled and stressed as they walked back onto the Yard near Sale Hall, I quickly got the scoop as to what had just  jumped off downtown. 

A short time later, students living on campus were summoned by our dorm directors to proceed to King Chapel, where we were met by then Morehouse President Leroy Keith, Disciplinary Dean Raymon Crawford, and Mayor Maynard Jackson—each scowling and standing on stage ready to speak. As Morehouse was a private school steeped in a culture of decorum, I was rather shocked to see and hear my schoolmates shouting down school leaders and Mayor Jackson, particularly after the mayor mentioned his own marches during the Civil Rights Movement and how the current students were not "honoring his and the legacy of Dr. Martin King" and whatnot; it seemed to me that the Brothers weren't trying to hear ANY of that, but Mayor Jackson, sounding like an anguished parent, stressed that if we tried to march downtown the next day, that we would be met by swift and overwhelming force to prevent any destruction or losses of life in "his" city. 

As I and my closest crew of friends had missed day one, we surely weren't going to miss day two as none of us liked the whole "y'all better not" taunts from the elders like Mayor Jackson and our school leaders, especially when the "y'all better not" involved the very rights to protest that were guaranteed in the Constitution. 

Most of my main crew, the “Morehouse Florida Boyz,” missed day one of the Rodney King protests—but we were present and accounted for on day two…

The next morning, close to 500 or so students met up in the quadrangle between Morehouse and Clark Atlanta and as we organized to begin our peaceful march back into downtown, we could see and hear at least a half dozen police and media helicopters flying low overhead. As we made our way towards Fair Street and Brawley Drive, as we looked down Fair Street towards Clark's gymnasium, there were hundreds upon hundreds of Atlanta Police Officers organized into phalanxes—with full riot gear—just waiting for our arrival!

Ever the historian, it was not lost on me in that moment that in a way, our visual perspective that morning was similar to what our Civil Rights heroes like John Lewis, Hosea Williams and others must have seen when they came strolling down the Edmund Pettus bridge to face police with clubs and guns back in March of '65. 

Bloody Selma circa ‘65; Atlanta University Center circa ‘92

What happened next proved Mayor Jackson right on at least one point, which is while the Civil Rights era leaders were beaten, arrested, and dispersed by those Alabama deputies in Selma without fighting back, on the contrary, the AUC student protesters fought back for hours with fists and rocks while setting police cruisers on fire that were left in our section of Fair Street as the police retreated east towards the city.

After several hours of clashes, Mayor Jackson finally had enough and gave orders to shut it ALL down; those police helicopters that had been circling above all day descended so low that you could see the flight officers eyes, before dropping tear gas cannisters into our student ranks! Meanwhile, the ground police units, reinforced by fellow officers from the heavily armed "Red Dog" units, began beating and arresting students en masse while the majority of protesters—choking desperately to breathe from the putrid tear gas exposure—finally dispersed. 

A Morehouse student running from billows of tear gas smoke near Merrill Hall on the second day of Rodney King protests…

At 19 years old, I couldn't comprehend the heavy handed tactics from our mayor and school leaders, and I blamed them for the chaos that erupted over two days. At 51 years old, I fully understand their need to maintain order—and where we students erred as far as choosing violence instead of allowing ourselves to be arrested in peace, as the Civil Rights era leaders had done decades before all across the South and in Chicago.

And yet, to this very day, I STILL believe that the violence that ensued in Atlanta that week was due to us having our free speech rights usurped by the police—not because any of us had any intentions to destroy property or harm anyone's person! I truly believe that had they left us alone, that we would have chanted, prayed, given rousing speeches, and let our displeasure be expressed via our intelligence and not our brawn.

Such is why I empathize with the students at colleges and schools across America who are being arrested for peacefully protesting the wanton death and destruction in Gaza. 

As I have written in several recent blogs in this space, these student protesters have every Constitutional right to peacefully assemble and lift their voices in support of Palestinian civilians who are being oppressed in their own homeland. Similarly, lest we forget that those who support Israel's military actions in Gaza have every right to peacefully assemble and lift their voices in support of their position as well—with the operative word again being "peacefully!" 

On a separate but equally crucial note, I have seen a number of influencers ask why American students should even be riled up about the events happening in Gaza since last October and in response, I quote Morehouse's most famous alumnus, Dr. Martin Luther King: "Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere."

Indeed...

But the part of me that is a professional educator is quite encouraged to see students developing an understanding of issues that go beyond their comfort zones here at home—issues that could mean a great deal to a great many Americans if the Middle East erupts into World War III! Which is why I remind my readers in closing the crucial holding in the United States Supreme Court's seminal opinion in Sweezy v. New Hampshire: “Teachers and students must always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate, to gain new maturity and understanding; otherwise, our civilization will stagnate and die.” 

As we all are students of current events, it is important that we ALL remain free to read, write, question, examine, cross-examine, and consider multiple viewpoints on the critical issues of our day, so that we can move towards a more peaceful, just, and secure world; when authorities crack down on the very tools that allow us to gain and express wisdom, such are the steps towards authoritarian rule—and mass suffering!

Again, lest we forget…