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Police pepper-spray black students peacefully protesting David Duke

“No Duke, no KKK, no fascist USA.”

Protesters march through Dillard University campus to confront Republican Senate candidate David Duke. CREDIT: Aviva Shen
Protesters march through Dillard University campus to confront Republican Senate candidate David Duke. CREDIT: Aviva Shen

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA — “Let us in. Let us in.”

Students at the historically black college Dillard University came out in force Wednesday night to protest a Louisiana Senate debate featuring former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. About 75 people, mostly Dillard students, gathered at the door to the mostly empty building where the debate was being staged, demanding to be allowed inside.

A woman pours water into the eyes of a protester who was maced. CREDIT: Aviva Shen
A woman pours water into the eyes of a protester who was maced. CREDIT: Aviva Shen

“Let black excellence through,” the protesters chanted.

Campus police did eventually open the door to the building — but only to mace the students trying to push their way inside.

Students scattered, eyes watering and noses running.

“They sprayed us directly in the face with it. I was covered on my shirt, my arms, my face,” Hannah Galloway, a white student from University of New Orleans, told reporters. “They’re bodyslamming people, they pulled girls’ hair. They’re just acting like heathens.”

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A few minutes later, protesters said, the police opened the door again and sprayed students who were simply standing at the door.

Prior to the pepper-spraying, at least one student, Brielle Kennedy, was handcuffed and taken away by campus police.

“She’s strong, a leader, she won’t back down,” another Dillard student, Brunisha Jones, said of Kennedy. “She stands for black people, black pride.”

CREDIT: Aviva Shen
CREDIT: Aviva Shen

Police also reportedly shoved and hit students, and even attempted to tase someone.

BuzzFeed’s John Stanton captured the violence:

Though the decision to include Duke in the debate and shut out the students was made by Raycom Media, the host of the debate, students’ anger was primarily geared toward Dillard’s president, Walter Kimbrough. Protesters repeatedly called him a “sellout” and an “Uncle Tom” for allowing the debate to occur on campus.

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Dillard students sent an open letter to Kimbrough on Monday with a list of demands, mostly geared toward student safety and school security. They also requested a lottery to allow students into the debate and a formal statement by school officials condemning Duke and the KKK.

CREDIT: Aviva Shen
CREDIT: Aviva Shen

Jones noted Kimbrough never responded to their letter or spoke directly to the students.

“He’s sent emails and he’s tweeted, but he hasn’t talked to us personally. A list of demands were sent and they were never responded to,” she said. “So even if we were to get a no or just some kind of respect…we never got that respect and that was our main problem and why we decided to still protest.”

Kimbrough discouraged protests, saying they were giving Duke too much attention. He also speculated on Twitter that the Raycom poll that enabled the white nationalist leader to clear the threshold to appear at the debate was “rigged.”

A statement from Dillard University on Thursday confirmed that pepper spray was used on protesters.

“As the time of the debate neared, the protests became less peaceful. Some members of the crowd attempted to move past Dillard Police and into the debate area,” the statement read. “As a last resort, DUPD made the decision to use pepper spray to stop the advancement of the crowd. After a second attempt to enter the building, officers again utilized pepper spray as a deterrent.”

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Protesters’ anger boiled over after campus police brought out the pepper spray. Some threw water bottles at the closed door. Later, students linked arms and blocked New Orleans Police cars, chanting “No Duke, no KKK, no fascist USA.”

The university also noted that six individuals were arrested and sent to jail after the debate was over for blocking traffic, one of whom was a Dillard student.

Students also expressed their disbelief that Dillard officials were allowing campus police to pepper-spray students repeatedly to keep them away from the former Klansmen.

“If they let this happen, they’ll let anything happen,” one young man who was pepper-sprayed told reporters. “They plan on walking all over us. It’s not right. It’s not right.”

UPDATE: This piece has been updated to include a statement from Dillard University.

Aviva Shen, a former ThinkProgress editor, is now a freelance writer in New Orleans focused on criminal justice.