Draped in pride flags and wet with rain, students gathered outside the Ferguson Chapel for a “Peaceful Protest Against Fascist Tyranny” on Jan. 30.
Junior linguistics major Kyle Urban said the event was organized by several RSOs and students looking to build a community at UCA.
“This was organized on behalf of PRISM and a couple of other organizations here today like Autism and Neurodiversity Alliance,” Urban said. “This is the big gathering for people to recognize who else is active and can help each other.”
Urban said he was inspired to protest by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that revoked former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Order 11246, titled “Equal Employment Opportunity.” This order, issued in 1965, required federal contractors to adhere to affirmative action and nondiscrimination policies.
“That was, you know, trying to have more fairness, preventing higher discrimination based on sex, race, religion, national origin. And he revoked it,” Urban said.
Raising cardboard signs with phrases like, “Queers against fascism,” “If not fascist, why fascist shaped?” and “Keep America Diverse,” several students took turns speaking out on the chapel steps.
One speaker, freshman art history major Mairon Freudensprung said he came to support those feeling alone or scared after the election.
“The best thing we can do right now is be here for one another and stand together in solidarity against a system and a world who, on the whole, is not going to be there to support us,” Freudensprung said. “It is very important to me right now that we cultivate a sense of community within UCA because we need each other more than ever right now.”
He urged students to stand with one another in the fight against injustice.
“We cannot forget our siblings and our friends in Palestine. We cannot forget our friends in Ukraine. We cannot forget our friends on the border. We cannot forget our friends suffering here under the current institutions of America,” Freudensprung said. “We cannot let them slip from our consciousness, because the moment they do, we are no longer making progress and we are no longer a unified community.”
Cochairs of Young Democratic Socialists, senior Cassandra Leder, sophomore Phoebe Hawley and sophomore Clara Spivey, said their club learned about the event from flyers posted around campus.
“We just decided to kind of send out people to support,” Hawley said. “We’re wanting to focus on the community outreach stuff lately, especially with the election and the new challenges that’s obviously going to cause in Arkansas and Conway. So we’re trying to just kind of get more involved in local issues.”
Leder said Young Democratic Socialists have worked with organizations like The League of Women Voters, InTransitive, Central Arkansas Harm Reduction Project, Arkansas Abortion Support Network and Central Arkansas DSA to help foster a sense of community around central Arkansas.
Spivey said, “I think that it’s important to stick together in the state of the world that is right now because we don’t know what’s going to happen, you know, four or five years from now. So it’s important to build those tight relationships now.”
Urban and Young Democratic Socialists want to host more events in the future to help build morale and to give students supportive, inclusive spaces on campus.
Spivey said, “It’s just important that we get together, and we are friends even outside of the club.”
Urban said, “Stripping away people’s rights and attacking them isn’t going to stop, and it’s going to be a hard four years. Anything you can do to pick people up, it has to happen. So this isn’t gonna be a one-off event. I mean, I plan more in the future.”