Howard Students Protest At RNC Chair Visit

Howard University students who were outraged by the visit of Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Ken Mehlman, staged a small protest outside the Carnegie building last night. Holding signs that read "Not On Our Campus, We Know Our History" more than a dozen students assembled outside the event hosted by the Howard University College Republicans. Many said they were denied entrance into the event after they questioned why their questions for Mehlman had to be submitted beforehand. The Rev. Lennox Yearwood, chairman of the Hip Hop Caucus, managed to get by security and briefly disrupted the event when he charged in with a bullhorn yelling at Mehlman "tell us the truth." He was quickly apprehended by campus security and taken outside where he continued to protest. "The RNC has had a history of intimidating black voters and now they want to come here, to Howard University and try to embrace African-American voters," Yearwood said. "They have had a history of this for over the last 20 years and we just want to make sure the trend stops...an acknowledgement or even just an apology would be fine." Protesters handed out literature to other media outlets in attendance, as well as students passing by, that listed over 20 different instances dating back to the 1980's in which the group claims African-Americans' voting rights were infringed upon. [more]

• Some Howard students said the “open dialogue” with Republicans has yet to begin. Erick Watson, a part-time Howard student, said he was denied access to the event after refusing to pre-submit a question for Mehlman. “I think it’s an insult for him not to take a collegiate level question,” said Watson. “That shows me that he’s not ready to come to my community, and I’m not ready to support the Republican Party.” [more]
  
• Getting with the Grass Roots but 'Never Getting Choked by the Grass': Republicans are not really in the hood. Nor are they going to be. They just want to give the appearance that they are. An outreach effort without actually doing any outreach  -go check out the Mehlman appearance at Howard University on C-Span- there are no students in the room - only weird, shook looking older Black folks. Those clones probably couldn't wait to get off Georgia Avenue. Roaches for Raid baby