Mike Brown protesters stormed the auditorium stage at Harris-Stowe University today during the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebrations. Harris-Stowe is a historic black teachers college.
Protesters and students then took the confrontation outside.
Police were called.
The protesters were carrying an upside-down flag and chanting,
“No Justice, No Peace!”
Protesters take the stage unannounced during #MLK celebration event inside Harris-Stowe. https://t.co/KUoX5xTme4
— Koran Addo (@KoranAddo) January 19, 2015
The university students and Mike Brown protesters held competing protests outside the auditorium.
Harris-Stowe students chant school's H-S-S-U chant at protesters outside university's #MLK event. https://t.co/XvKUJs2GwH
— Koran Addo (@KoranAddo) January 19, 2015
Police were called to the university during the outburst at the auditorium.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported:
Protesters invoking Michael Brown and Ferguson burst into an auditorium at Harris-Stowe State University early Monday afternoon and briefly shut down a Martin Luther King Day celebration.
The protesters and Harris-Stowe students later confronted each other outside the venue, as police converged on the area.
Shortly before 1 p.m., as the King observance was in progress in the crowded auditorium, about two-dozen protesters came in waving an upside-down American flag and chanting “No Justice, No Peace.”
They took the stage, and as the crowd began filing out angrily, they used a microphone to accuse the university and the clergy who were in attendance of being part of the “establishment.”
Protesters left the stage and left the building after Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, appealed for calm. But later, the protesters and Harris-Stowe students confronted each other about the disrupted event.
“They came in here (being) so very disrespectful,” said Harris-Stowe freshman Shaquell Humphries, 18. “There are old folks and little kids in that auditorium and they (the protesters) started cussing.”
Harris-Stowe students hold peace signs in the air, tell protesters to leave campus outside today's #MLK event. pic.twitter.com/ckJA1aLpr2
— Koran Addo (@KoranAddo) January 19, 2015
Police face-off with protesters outside Harris-Stowe after demonstrators briefly shut down #MLK prayer even… https://t.co/57AhTZu67M
— Koran Addo (@KoranAddo) January 19, 2015
