Texas A&M Cancels Sept. 11 White Lives Matter Event

By Lindsay Ellis and St. John Barned-Smith, Houston Chronicle

15 August 17

 

exas A&M University abruptly cancelled a White Lives Matter rally planned by an outside organizer days after deadly violence rattled Charlottesville near the University of Virginia's campus.

University administrators consulted with law enforcement, system leaders, regents and state officials before cancelling the rally that had been set for Sept. 11, officials said Monday.

Preston Wiginton, a one-time Texas A&M student, announced on Saturday that he would host a White Lives Matter event in College Station on Sept. 11. The announcement came as the "Unite the Right" protest was under way in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"Today Charlottesville, Tomorrow Texas A&M," he said in a press release.

A&M officials said the planned protest raised safety concerns after the violence in Virginia.

"Linking the tragedy of Charlottesville to the Texas A&M event creates a major security risk on our campus," officials said in a statement Monday afternoon.

The rally in Virginia turned deadly Saturday after a man slammed his car into counter-protesters, killing one person and injuring 19 others, including a Houston woman who is a student at UVA.

The 20-year-old Ohio man charged with second-degree murder in the car crash has been linked to a white supremacist organization, Vanguard America, that has posted hate-filled flyers at synagogues, and universities in Houston, across Texas and beyond.

The planned September event would have brought white nationalist Richard Spencer back to campus for a second time along with Ken Reed, a White Lives Matter representative from the Houston area. Wiginton said Monday he expected to pursue legal action following the cancellation.

"They think they're above the law," he said. "The First Amendment in America doesn't mean anything."

A&M officials defended the decision to cancel the event in light of the violence in Charlottesville.
In addition to safety concerns, A&M officials said Monday the daylong event would have challenged class schedules and the movement of students, faculty and staff.

"Texas A&M's support of the First Amendment and the freedom of speech cannot be questioned," the university said in a statement.

Spencer first spoke at A&M in December. Then, university officials said they could not block him from speaking on campus, citing the First Amendment.

In December, Wiginton organized an event featuring Spencer, who spouted racist views and drew hundreds of protesters to the campus.

"America, at the end of the day, belongs to white men," Spencer said.

Instead of cancelling the December event, A&M held a school-sanctioned event called Aggies United on the football field nearby.

University officials cited the First Amendment in deciding not to call off the event, despite enormous opposition.

Texas A&M President Michael Young said at the time that Spencer was legally allowed to "express odious, reprehensible ideas" as long as he followed university rules on time, place and manner of speech and did not incite violence.

The latest event would have disrupted the campus, interfering with the movement of students, faculty and staff, officials said.

"On Dec. 6, 2016 the university and law enforcement allowed the same speaker the opportunity to share his views, taking all of the necessary precautions to ensure a peaceful event," according to the university statement. "However, in this case, circumstances and information relating to the event have changed and the risks of threat to life and safety compel us to cancel the event."

A&M Regent Tony Buzbee, a Houston attorney, said in an email he supported administrators' decision to call off the event.

"We're living in a new age," he said by phone before the event was cancelled. "People show up to a so-called peaceful rally, and they're wearing helmets, holding shields and billy clubs. That's not a peaceful rally."

He added, "If we have evidence that the people are coming to be violent ... then not only should we act, I think we have an obligation to."

Students had already planned a "Maroon Wall" to "show that the Aggie Family's commitment to its own is far greater than any force trying to divide us," attracting interest from thousands of people, including other Texas students.

Another event, dubbed "BTHO Hate," was also planned to rally students against white supremacist messages.

"It is clear that the event posed a danger to the student body and Texas A&M did the right thing to protect its students," student organizer Adam Key said in an email.

State Rep. John Raney, R-Bryan/College Station, first announced the event's cancellation on the House floor Monday in the State Capitol, shortly after other representatives urged Chancellor John Sharp to call off the event.

Raney, an Aggie from the class of 1969, said Sharp called him to tell him the event had been cancelled amid safety concerns after people commented on social media they would be bringing firearms.

"I know there are, I guess you'd say, free speech issues," Raney said. "But this was not done on a free-speech basis. It was done on a safety-of-the-students basis. I think that's appropriate.

"There's no reason to put any of those kids in harm's way for a reason that's ridiculous in the first place," he said.

Gov. Greg Abbott's office also weighed in, working with the university "to prevent the type of hate-filled event that we saw in Charlottesville," according to a statement.

The white supremacist group, Vanguard America, was among dozens of nationalistic and neo-Nazi groups that turned out in Charlottesville for the weekend rally there.

Vanguard America has denied that the car's driver, James Alex Fields Jr., had ties to the organization, though he was seen wearing insignia and holding an organization shield during protests earlier in the day.

Vanguard America has a history of spreading hate in Houston, taping anti-Semitic flyers to signs, doors and gates at two Houston synagogues on July 16, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation league.

The group also participated in a protest over false reports about the possible removal of a statue of Sam Houston monument in Houston's Hermann Park.

"Vanguard America (VA) is a white supremacist group that opposes multiculturalism and believes that America is an exclusively white nation," according to the ADL's report. "Using a right-wing nationalist slogan, Blood and Soil, VA romanticizes the notion that people with 'white blood' have a special bond with 'American soil.'"

The ADL report says the group focuses on recruiting young man and has targeted its outreach to American college campuses.