Over 30 years after Black students took over one of the oldest buildings on campus to ask the administration to take down a quote that they say misrepresented a prominent Black Muslim leader’s words, the University of Rhode Island has finally removed a partial quote by Malcolm X from the facade of its library.
The controversial Malcolm X inscription was nearly 20 feet by 7 feet, carved on “black granite facade panels from the end of a sixty-five-foot hydraulic boom lift,” and was unveiled to the community in October 1992.
Back then, Black students took exception to the inscription and protested by taking over URI’s Taft Hall, despite the school’s insistence that the quote was meant to be a tribute to the Black nationalist leader.
However, on March 10, the institution’s president, Marc Parlange, took action and fixed the three-decade-old concern — making good on a promise he made to the Black alumni after meeting with them in 2022 during their 30th anniversary of Nov. 10, 1992, protest, The Associated Press reported.
During the commemoration, the newly installed president said, “Tonight, it is very important we acknowledge that 30 years ago, there was a group of students who stood up and had the courage to address injustices that were happening at the time.”
Parlange stated he was “happy to share” with the group that protested the inscription and would “work on removing the etching on the library … by the end of the year.”
Working beside him is URI alumna, interim vice president for community, equity, and diversity, and original member of the BSLG Michelle Fontes, to find “an alternative installation for the library.”
In 1992, a total of 200 students, including the campus’ Black Student Leadership Group, raised concern about how the school used Malcolm X’s quote out of context in an inscription on the Robert L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons.
The inscription used on the library…
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