On Aug. 11 and 12, a “Unite the Right” rally was held in Charlottesville, Virginia, with a goal of showing opposition in the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee from “Lee Park.” The protesters were met by counter-protesters on the morning of Aug. 12 and, after a state of emergency was declared, numerous people were left injured and one left dead.
The LSU Student Government Student Senate decided to respond to this event through legislation, standing in solidarity with those affected.
“What happened in Charlottesville hits close to home on multiple levels,” said SG Graduate School senator Jordan Landry. “For one thing, after the shootings the past few years. On another level, it happened in a university town … All of that gives me the feeling that, it happened in Charlottesville, it could’ve happened in Baton Rouge.”
Landry said one reason he jumps to this conclusion is because he sees many names of Confederate soldiers around Baton Rouge and the University’s campus, such as Troy H. Middleton, Edmund Kirby Smith and Raphael Semmes, as well as Robert E. Lee himself seen in the name of Robert E. Lee High School on Lee Drive.
The name of, what has now become just known as Lee High School , was called into question in June 2016 before the newly-renovated campus welcomed students for the first time in August 2016. The reasoning behind the questioning is rooted in the official name of the school still referencing Lee himself.
“It could have happened here, we know what’s going on and we want to stick up for another university that, in many ways, is like [LSU,]” Landry said.
The legislation, co-authored by Landry, Graduate School Senator Wokil Bam, College of Mass Communication senator Frederick Bell, College of Humanities & Social Sciences senator Ahmad El-Rachidi, College of Humanities & Social Sciences senator Maxwell Martin, College of Humanities & Social Sciences senator Johnathon Price and College of Agriculture senator Andrew “Drew” Vaughn, begins by outlining the events that transpired in Charlottesville.
The legislation then moves on to state “the students of this university stand in solidarity with the people of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia in their continued efforts to resist those who propagate racist, white-supremacist, neo-Confederate, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic oppression in word and deed.”
Later in the legislation, it also states SG is recommitting itself to work against this type of hate in the local communities.
Landry, who previously authored legislation through SG last year standing in solidarity with those affected by Executive Order 13769, or the “Travel Ban”, said similarities between the two are seen in the undercurrent of “anti-Other-ism,” as he called it.
“It’s one thing to disagree with what people may do,” Landry said. “[It’s] getting beyond that from what people do to who people are.”
The legislation passed unanimously through the Student Life, Diversity & Community Outreach on Monday night with no amendments to the original document.
SG Senate is slated to vote on the legislation Wednesday night.
*Editor’s Note: Frederick Bell is a former columnist for The Daily Reveille.