Vol.63/No.36 October 18, 1999
Two bombs explode at a Black agricultural university in Florida
BY BILL KALMAN
MIAMI — Two pipe bombs were detonated within three weeks at Florida A&M University (FAMU), an historically Black agricultural school in Tallahassee. Both bombs went off in men's bathrooms in two separate buildings on campus: the first an administration building, the second a computer classroom building. The FBI and Florida authorities say they are investigating these bombings as "hate crimes." After both bombings, someone called a local TV station to claim responsibility, using racist epithets to call for "getting rid of" Blacks on campus.
In response to the two blasts, which occurred August 31 and September 22, the campus of 12,000 students has been locked down under heavy guard. Armed security guards, campus, city, and county police have taken up positions around the university. Tallahassee and Leon County police are staffing five check points round-the-clock and require anyone coming onto campus to produce Florida A&M photo ID. Student government president Corny Minor told the Tallahassee Democrat, "I think it [the presence of armed cops on campus] will continue the fear. Whenever you see an armed officer, that is fear personified."
Omar Kelly, editor of the Famuan, the student newspaper, told the Washington Post, "A lot of students are scared to come to school. There are tons of police officers and FBI-looking persons on campus, and driving to campus I was stopped three times, and when I got to campus I was stopped once." Visitors to the campus are asked their purpose and turned away if their reason is not specific enough.
Florida governor John Ellis Bush has authorized $200,000 for police overtime and surveillance cameras. To date no arrests have been made or are imminent. "We don't need to talk about what we've got and what we haven't got," Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Tim Moore said.
For all the concerns about safety, the school administration only shut the campus for the rest of the day following each bombing. Elizabeth Hamilton, a freshman student, said, "I don't like the way the school runs things because there is a bomb over here and a bomb over there but yet class is still going on and they don't know where anything is going."
Students at the university have organized protests at the state capitol in Tallahassee against the bombings, and students from neighboring Florida State University (FSU) marched September 28 from their campus to FAMU "to show solidarity," according to one of the march organizers. Both FSU and FAMU were founded during the Jim Crow era and were racially segregated for many years.
On September 26 Jesse Jackson spoke at an ecumenical service on campus denouncing the bombings.
Bill Kalman is a member of United Transportation Union Local 1138 in Miami.
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