Demonstrators flocked to Harvard University yesterday to protest the coming of David Horowitz, the former civil rights lawyer who has spoken out against reparations for slavery at universities across the country, including last year at Boston University.
Horowitz came to the Harvard Science Center to comment on the school’s “leftist” professors and express his belief that the political left is to blame for Sept. 11.
“Protest David Horowitz, racist ideologue for U.S. imperialism! Defend black rights!” yelled the group of 15 protesters, armed with pickets and a loudspeaker, at passing college students and watchful police officers.
Horowitz was invited by the Harvard Republican Committee to stop in during his spring campus campaign on “National Service and Uncivil Wars.”
“He’s not afraid to say things others won’t, and we wanted to mix things up on campus,” said HRC President Brian Grech. “The Republican Club doesn’t necessarily agree with what he is saying, but he’s a voice worth hearing.”
Protesters from the Boston Spartacus Youth Club, a socialist group, used the controversial speaker’s appearance as a platform for a number of socialist issues, including U.S. imperialism and the War on Terrorism.
“Horowitz is cloaked under the guise of free speech but only wants it for people who support U.S. imperialism,” said protester Jesse Alt, a BU graduate student and member of Spartacus.
“His tour also demonizes anyone who opposes the war in Afghanistan,” Alt said. “Anyone who supports us can come out and speak.”
The sentiment of most passersby, however, was not in accordance with the protesters.
“I don’t understand exactly what they’re protesting against. They are very unfocused,” said Boris Shakhnovich, a BU graduate student. “They keep bringing in other issues when to them this is a First Amendment right issue, and David Horowitz has just as much right to say things as they do.”
Horowitz, author of the controversial books “Uncivil Wars” and “Hating Whitey,” made news at college campuses around the country last year for printing ads in college newspapers, including The Daily Free Press and the Harvard Crimson, against reparations for slavery. According to Grech, Horowitz wasn’t allowed to speak on reparations for slavery yesterday, but he did publish another ad in the Harvard Crimson newspaper Tuesday.
“Horowitz wanted us [the Harvard Republican Committee] to pay for a police detail after he printed the ad,” said Harvard sophomore Matt Ciardello, a member of the HRC, noting the seven policemen who drifted between the protesters and the Science Center. “But we said he had to pay for it himself.”
The protesters were not cowed by the detail and remained peaceful for the hour-and-a-half protest.
“He’s trying to intimidate any opposition,” said protester Helen Cantrell, a supporter of the Spartacus Club. “It exposes his pretension to be for free speech.”
Many Harvard students who watched the protest still went in to hear Horowitz speak, preferring to hear both sides of the argument before casting a judgment.
“People are willing to hear what he says before damning him,” said Harvard freshman Rex Baker.
“I have heard David Horowitz speak five times and he is not a racist or pro-slavery by any means, and I agree with a lot that he says,” said Chanel Prunier, a junior at Assumption College. “The protesters have every right to be here, but I don’t agree with what they are saying. Maybe they’d change their minds if they heard him.”
The protesters had no intention of hearing the speaker they were actively opposing.
“We’re not planning to listen,” Cantrell said as students entered the Science Center. “We think it’s more important to keep protesting.”
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