TW: This article contains mentions of racist language and descriptions of gun violence and racialized violence.

After right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on Sept. 10 at an event at Utah Valley University, several historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the American Southeast received violent and racially charged threats the following day, leading to multiple campuses being placed in lockdown. These schools included: Virginia State University, Alabama State University, Southern University in Louisiana’s Baton Rouge campus, Bethune-Cookman University in Florida, Hampton University in Virginia, and Clark Atlanta University in Georgia (Washington Post). Another HBCU, Spelman College in Georgia, did not receive direct threats, but went into lockdown due to its close proximity to Clark Atlanta.

Threats were also sent to Black students at New York University (NYU) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) despite not being HBCUs; the NYU campus did not enter lockdown. Law enforcement in the Manhattan area did not consider the messages a credible threat. Although not all of these messages have been released in full, Quinton Ross, president of Alabama State University, deemed the message they’d received a “terroristic threat” (Washington Post), and screenshots of the messages sent to Southern University (Baton Rouge) and NYU were posted on social media. The threatening messages sent to these institutions contained anti-Black language referring to the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, committed in late August by a homeless Black man with a history of severe mental illness.

These messages contained violent language, racial slurs, and threats of gun violence specifically directed at Black students and faculty at these institutions. Furthermore, a manifesto was attached to the messages, providing background information regarding motive and planning, the attacker’s personal information, and ideations toward Black people as a whole in American society. It also featured illustrations showing Black people with exaggerated features, which were historically used to depict Black people as less human than their white counterparts, particularly during the Jim Crow era. These manifestos have not been publicly released in full, but have been posted on the internet by students along with the original messages. An NYU student posted a public TikTok video addressing the threat and the NYU administration’s lack of action (TikTok: @onlyslumpgod).

Senior Nijah (she/her), who is exclusively applying to HBCUs across the East and Southeast, spoke on the impact that this news has had on her college decisions. When asked why she is only applying to HBCUs, she said, “Currently, I am going to a predominantly white institution and I’ve realized that being around people that are not ‘like’ me has been very stressful,” then continued to talk about how being at a predominantly white school has been hard on her personal identity. She explained that, upon hearing that Southern HBCUs had been targeted, she “did get a little worried,” but her top college is on the East Coast, so she was not overly alarmed.

Charlie Kirk was not killed on the campus of an HBCU; the suspected perpetrator of his murder, Tyler Robinson, is a white man from a staunchly Republican family Al Jazeera. Kirk’s murder was a white-on-white crime, at a predominantly white institution, in a predominantly white state.

This is not the first attack on HBCUs. In 2022, dozens of HBCUs received bomb threats, leading to the opening of an FBI hate crime investigation. In 2023, Ed Waters University, an HBCU in Florida, received an active threat, during which a racist gunman entered school grounds before being told to leave. He later killed three people at a nearby convenience store (Washington Post). The violent intimidation of Black, Brown and Indigenous communities during times of political tension is not something new to the United States (1863 Reconstruction Era, 2024 election, 2016 election, 2008 election, 9/11/2001).

Hate crimes directed at the Black community are continuous links in the long chain of American domestic terrorism. For example, the domestic terrorist group called the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was founded in 1865, was most highly active in the 1920s and members are still present today (Wikipedia). This country sits on countless attacks on Black success and connection — the bombing of churches (Birmingham, AL 1963), the de-segregation of schools (“Little Rock Nine”, Ruby Bridges, Boston, MA 1974), the defunding of HBCUs (Trump Admin, 2025), the destruction of successful Black communities (Tulsa, OK 1921, Detroit Race Riot, 1943) and countless Sundown towns around the country, particularly in the South.

These threats towards Black students don’t have a definite, clearly identified motive. Kirk was known, however, to be an effective messenger of the conservative rhetoric that often dehumanizes Black and Brown people, immigrants, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, etc. He has said things like: “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like ‘boy, I hope he’s qualified’”(The Guardian), “Reject feminism. Submit to your husband […] you’re not in charge” (The Guardian) and “The American Democrat party hates this country […] they love when it becomes less white” (The Guardian), to quote many instances from his podcast, The Charlie Kirk Show. The manifestos attached to the original threat messages may contain motives, but copies of those documents have not been officially released to the public. But currently, no evidence connects the Black community, HBCUs, and Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is demanding and working towards achieving safety and equality for Black students around the country (NAACP).