By Casey Roepke ’21 and Liz Lewis ’22
News Editors
On Monday, Sept. 7, a group of Trump supporters participated in a “Back the Blue” pro-police demonstration in front of the South Hadley Village Commons. The event, advertised on Facebook and hosted by Dianna Ploss, whose Facebook profile indicates she is a former Massachusetts deputy state campaign director for Donald J. Trump for President, garnered pushback from Mount Holyoke College students.
Over the weekend, students circulated a petition demanding a response from the administration regarding the planned protest. The petition was written by student representatives from a number of cultural organizations and racial justice social media groups including the Association of Pan-African Unity, the Instagram account @bipocatmountholyoke, the MHC Asian American Students in Action, the MHC Asian Students Association, La Unidad, La Familia, the Muslim Student Association, STEM POC, Palestinian Solidarity MHC, and the Mount Holyoke African and Caribbean Student Association. In the petition, the students wrote that “the implication of the stance held by the ‘Back the Blue’ rally is in direct opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement and the safety of all POC groups and LGBTQ+ community. Not only could this rally be a threat to the safety of the students currently on campus, but allowing it to proceed sends a much larger message to the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ community of the College that they do not matter.” Because the Village Commons is owned by the College, the petition demanded that “the school makes a response or bans the protest.” The petition collected over 1,600 signatures.
On Sept. 5, President of the College Sonya Stephens released a statement in response to the petition. “Over the past few days, the College leadership was made aware of a series of ongoing rallies in Western Massachusetts in support of President Trump and ‘Back the Blue,’ a pro-law enforcement group,” she wrote. “Participants will gather on the public area around the gazebo, which is not owned by the College. This intersection, and the sidewalks along Route 116 in front of the College, have in recent weeks seen regular, peaceful and non-partisan vigils in support of racial justice.”
In the original statement, Stephens also wrote: “Those organizing the rally have obtained a permit from the town of South Hadley.” Because obtaining a permit was not required for the demonstration, this sentence has since been removed from the letter.
After reaffirming the College’s anti-racist guidelines, Stephens added, “The right to peaceful assembly, and indeed to free speech, are protected in the First Amendment, and together with the freedoms of association, petition and the press are what we understand more broadly as freedom of expression. … The College cannot, then, prevent an assembly from being held on town property in proximity to the campus.”
On Monday, a number of students and community members staged a counter-protest across the street from the “Back the Blue” demonstration. Avery Martin ’22, a student who attended the counter-protest, described the environment as “tense but mostly peaceful.” One exception, Martin said, was a moment when “a young Black man driving by flipped off the rally and then had to stop at the light, and one of the Trump supporters aggressively approached his car and swung his sign at the young man.” When the man started to get out of his car, a handful of counter-protesters including Martin “quickly moved to make a line of bodies around the car to keep the Trump supporters from hurting him or engaging violently further,” Martin said. After the light turned green, “a police officer in an unmarked car came out and directed traffic.” When the officer drove off, the counter-protesters returned to the sidewalks.
Martin, who went with a small group of friends to the side of the road where the “Back the Blue” supporters stood in an effort to limit how far the rally could spread, was in close proximity to many of the Trump supporters. Though the atmosphere was generally nonviolent, minor verbal arguments broke out regularly between the two sides. Martin and another BLM protester engaged in one argument with a few Trump supporters, who claimed the students were “being lied to, America isn't racist and Black people who get shot shouldn't have broken the law,” according to Martin.
Sonya Stephens and Dean of Students Marcella Runell Hall each made appearances at the rally. According to Martin, President Stephens was quietly present for about 20 minutes and then departed, while Hall “stayed a lot longer and participated more.”
Some of the counter-protesters, mainly South Hadley residents, chanted the message that South Hadley is not represented by the Trump supporters, and that the “real” South Hadley stands against racism. To Martin, this view is somewhat reductive. “South Hadley IS racist and that’s the problem,” they said.