Happy Hour News

Welcome to Black History Month, and Axios tells us that the US has already set a record:

Over a dozen HBCUs get bomb threats on first day of Black History Month

More than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities on Tuesday closed campus or cancelled classes due to bomb threats on the first day of Black History Month.

The big picture: It was the second day this week and third in the last month that several HBCUs received such threats. By Tuesday afternoon, the majority of the schools had been cleared and no bombs had been found.

• The FBI said it was aware of the threats and was working with local law enforcement.

What’s happening: According to school officials or authorities, the campuses that received threats on Tuesday include…

• Howard University
• Alcorn State University
• Coppin State University
• Edward Waters University
• Fort Valley State University
• The University of the District of Columbia
• Morgan State University
• Kentucky State University
• Xavier University of Louisiana
• Philander Smith College
• Arkansas Baptist College, per the city’s mayor
• Mississippi Valley State University
• Jackson State University

[snip]

Our thought bubble via Axios’ Russell Contreras: The bomb threats come as new data from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism showed a massive spike last year in suspected hate crimes in over a dozen of the largest U.S. cities.

• HBCUs have long represented important community links to Black Americans and have recently become more diverse with Asian American and Latino students.

The bottom line: “Our history has been one where we have endured all kinds of challenges and disruptions, but we have always emerged stronger,” Morgan State University president David Wilson said in a statement Tuesday.

• “I’m hopeful that these bomb threats to our National Treasure, and to many of our other sister HBCU institutions, will be aggressively investigated by the FBI,” he added.