Letter from the Black Laurentian Initiative

To the St. Lawrence Community,

The story of St. Lawrence’s commitment to the values of justice and equality is often symbolized through the steady glow of an ever-burning candlelight. In the dark days, weeks, and months following the senseless murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless others — today’s announcement proves that our steady candlelight burns brighter than ever. Members of the Black Laurentian Initiative have worked tirelessly with President Fox, University Trustees, Administrators, Faculty/Staff, and the campus community at large to make sure the unfathomable grief and rage felt throughout this nation fuels a joint effort in building a better tomorrow. Our collective efforts to move the needle on these issues speak to the ideals of academia, and the exceptionalism of our beloved University. It encourages us not to abandon our institutions, but rather to reimagine them into a system that values and cherishes all Laurentians.

The late John Lewis, in the prologue of his memoir Walking With The Wind, described the constant struggle our society faces through a memory from his childhood of a big storm, threatening to pull at the foundation of his Aunt’s home as she watched over the children of the neighborhood. She guided the children to each corner of the house, using the weight of their small bodies to fight the wind from ripping it up into the air. Lewis stated:

Our society is not unlike the children in that house, rocked again and again by the winds of one storm or another, the walls around us seeming at times as if they might fly apart… eventually, inevitably, the storm would settle, and the house would still stand. But we knew another storm would come, and we would have to do it all over again.

And we do. And we still do. You and I. Children holding hands, walking with the wind. That is America to me.

The Black Laurentian Initiative recognizes that we are once again in the midst of a powerful storm, a storm fighting to maintain the structures of systemic racism, and rally against our assertion that Black Lives Matter. But the measures laid out by President Fox are the beginning of a long collaborative effort to weather that storm, to hold our values and ideals as an institution to apply equally to all Laurentians, and to show other universities, towns, cities, and states the importance of anti-racist actions to push beyond perfomative behavior. That is where BLI finds its purpose, and looks forward to working within the extended St. Lawrence family in the near future.

Proud Laurentians for Life,

The Black Laurentian Initiative