Morgan Spivey & the Mizzou Protest, 2014.
Authored by Ramona M. Davis ’21 in “Black Student Activism at Davidson College“
last updated 02.09.2021
In this next photo, a black woman activist, Morgan Spivey, takes part in leading a demonstration where over 200 Davidson community members stood in solidarity with student protestors at the University of Missouri or Mizzou. The Mizzou students created a group called Concerned Students 1950 in response to unaddressed hate crimes and the administration’s blatant disregard for student welfare (Click, 2015). Morgan’s red poster reads “we support black lives” and five white people locked arms behind her, looking calmly in another direction. Her facial expression shows her investment in the words, as she is likely yelling, and hints at the distress of being a black student at a PWI. Her camo jacket and black leggings allude to black militancy and the radical aesthetics of the Black Panther Party. On the contrary, the white faculty and students behind her wear mostly business casual clothing, visually signaling the distance between their politics and Morgan’s.
When discussing the politics of black study within the university, Carter (2018) states that “we write against plantation logics and remind us that universities remain strongholds of white supremacy… Instead of perpetuating a fantasy of liberal inclusion and safety, we cultivate the Black studies mind” – Carter. This protest is about understanding the violence of white institutions and people from these same institutions lock arms to support black students. Africana Studies teaches women black students to question everything
