Hundreds of Howard U. Students Greet Laura Bush With Protest Threatened With Arrest, Students Refuse to Back Down

On Thursday, October 27, hundreds of Howard University students greeted Laura Bush with a militant protest against the war in Iraq, the criminally negligent and racist conduct of the federal government in response to Hurricane Katrina and cuts in education.
Holding signs that read, "2000 Dead, End Occupation: Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti..., Money for Education Not War," the students began their demonstration at 11am in protest of Laura Bush’s presence on the Howard University campus.

The demonstration was led by Youth and Student A.N.S.W.E.R. and Cimarrones, a progressive Black Student Union of Caribbeans, Central and South Americans, as well as various other campus organizations such as Howard University Student Association (HUSA), Howard Amnesty International and Ubiquity.

The demonstration turned into a confrontation as university officials working with Secret Service and DC Police threatening to arrest the students unless they moved. "They are trying to force us to disperse or at least move back 30 feet, but we in the Black community have been told to move for 300 years," said Eugene Puryear, a coordinator of Youth and Student A.N.S.W.E.R and Howard sophomore.