Sr. Leche Caliente

“I would’ve walked out if they disrespected one of y’all”

That one hit me real deep

Hundreds of black students marched into Cornell University’s Willard Straight Hall on Wednesday afternoon and occupied the building for several hours after delivering a list of demands to the University’s president in a protest reminiscent of the 1969 takeover of the same building.

More than 300 marchers, led by Black Students United, silently climbed three flights of stairs in Day Hall and handed a list of demands to President Martha Pollack, who had met with BSU earlier in the day.

The protesters, the majority of whom were black and most of whom were people of color, were responding in part to the assault on Friday of a black Cornell student, who said a group of white men called him the N-word and bloodied him by repeatedly punching him in the face in Collegetown. Two weeks prior to the occupation, a resident of the Latino Living Center reported hearing chants of “build a wall” from a nearby fraternity, Zeta Psi.

Ithaca Police arrested John Greenwood ’20, a 19-year-old white student, within hours of the altercation and have charged him with two misdemeanors: third-degree assault and second-degree aggravated harassment. Police are continuing to investigate whether there is enough evidence to charge Greenwood under hate crime statutes, Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 said.

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