(NEWS) Students Reject Racist Philosophy and March for Equality

By: Scott Buffon

Tags: BSU, Dr. Louis Agassiz, Thurgood Marshall, Flagstaff,
Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Whites- we all stand for human rights, chanted a
student coalition for equality marching through Northern Arizona University on
Martin Luther King Day.
With Police SUVs blocking street traffic, the peaceful Arizona protest progressed
from middle to south campus. The universitys Black Student Union (BSU) helped
organize the protest that attracted over 300 people, while also affecting change of a
different kind. Gabriella Nunnally, Social Justice Committee Chair for the BSU, lead
the effort to change a room title in the DuBois Center from Agassiz to Marshall.
Dr. Louis Agassiz was a Harvard graduate that tried to scientifically prove that black
humans are inferior to white humans through polygeny. Polygeny is the idea that
humans evolved from many different ancestors.
In seeing their black faces with their thick lips and grimacing teeth, the wool on
their head, their bent knees, their elongated hands, their large curved nails, and
especially the livid color of the palms of their hands, I could not take my eyes off
their faces in order to tell them to stay far away, said Dr. Louis Agassiz, in a quote
temporarily posted in the Marshall room for the days celebration.
Dr. Louis Agassizs last name may sound especially familiar to the Flagstaff local as
his name also designates a mountain peak near the city, a street, and a university
scholarship.
The new name for the room, the Marshall room, was inspired by Thurgood Marshall.
Marshall was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice and one of the Judges
that presided over the Brown vs. Board of Education case.
It is interesting to me that the very people. . .that would object to sending their
white children to school with Negroes are eating food that has been prepared,
served, and almost put in their mouths by the mothers of those children, said
Marshall, on a different poster set up in the Marshall room.
The BSU was notified about Agassizs history by Bernadine Lewis, director of
Undergraduate Programs. The university paid employee is a descendant of one of
the slaves pictured in one of Agassizs experiments. In these pictures, Agassiz took
slaves from their and put them -naked- into a studio to have their features
documented to prove his theory.
Lewis hadnt always known the relation. Learning from her Aunt as a child that a
man named Agassiz had discriminated against her ancestors, when she moved to
Flagstaff she looked up the names history and put two and two together. Since
understanding this, she protested the man by refusing to enter the Agassiz room,
and walk the street.
Students honored her at the MLK march, by encouraging her to tell her familys
story in the ballroom above the Marshall Room.

Im very proud that this was [the BSUs] civil rights movement. I always love to see
that, said Lewis. A lot of older generations say that young people have forgotten,
they think theyve become complacent. And this group proved that theyre not.
The MLK celebration featured a student spoken word presentation, a video of Kings
speech Ive been to the mountain top, and several reflections on the work still left
to do.
Tylor Brown, Business Management, Freshman, and Keilan Alexander, Civil Engineer,
Sophomore delivered a spoken word presentation about standing on the shoulders
of giants, like Dr. King.
We all know MLK spoke for justice and peace. We need to continue pushing for
justice in these streets. We gotta keep pushing for progression so we all can strive.
Its up to us to keep Dr. Kings dream alive- peace, said Brown and Alexander.
The celebration was put on by university groups like the Black Student Union, Office
of the President, Office of Student Life, Housing and Residence Life, NAU Athletics,
Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, and Inclusion and Multicultural
Services.