Black colleges alarmed by bomb threats, but undeterred

From her office in Birmingham, Alabama, DeJuana Thompson looks across the street and sees a daily reminder of terror. “Living in the era of bomb threats is not new to people of color,” said Thompson, president and CEO of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Nearly six decades after that bombing by the Ku Klux Klan, the FBI is now investigating last week’s bomb threats against at least 17 historically Black colleges and universities across the U.S. Thompson said the threats underscore the need to teach new generations the history of violence targeting people of color so the lessons of the past can be applied to the present. In Alabama, people used to call Birmingham “Bombingham” because of how many bombs and bomb threats occurred, Thompson said. “The best way to challenge these white supremacists and haters is by doubling down and investing in HBCUs long term and strengthening them as institutions.” National Urban League President Marc Morial called the latest bomb threats “part of the poisonous tree of hate,” putting them in the same category as legislative proposals that would suppress the vote, the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a spike in hate crimes and backlash against affirmative action.