{"id":82583,"date":"2019-11-08T16:46:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T22:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=82583"},"modified":"2019-11-12T13:01:15","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T19:01:15","slug":"jeff-sessions-prompts-protests-as-he-speaks-at-northwestern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/jeff-sessions-prompts-protests-as-he-speaks-at-northwestern\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Sessions prompts protests as he speaks at Northwestern"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nicole Stock<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Huddled outside a performance hall on Northwestern University\u2019s Evanston campus Nov. 5, a group of students banged on the glass panes of the wooden door at Lutkin Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cF\u2026k Jeff Sessions!\u201d they chanted, pounding their fists. Many students and community members gathered to protest the invitee of the campus\u2019 college Republicans group, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sessions, 72, spoke at 7 p.m. on \u201cThe Real Meaning of the Trump Agenda,\u201d according to the Northwestern University College Republican\u2019s advertisement for the event.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Trump fired Sessions a year after the attorney general recused himself from the Russia investigation of the President that Trump hoped Sessions would oversee. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\n
\nThe line for the talk started forming outside of Lutkin,\u00a0 700 University Pl., at about 5:30 p.m. The doors for the event opened at 6:30, at which point, protesters began to congregate opposite to the line.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Daniel Rodriguez, a second year student at Northwestern, the protest focused on\u00a0 what Jeff Sessions’ coming to the university symbolized. Many of the protesters\u2019 chants revolved around ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), police corruption, and racism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe university has often times reiterated their focus of protecting minorities, yet they\u2019ve told the people protesting, \u2018do not interrupt or you\u2019ll be arrested,\u2019\u201d Rodriguez said, \u201cYou have to preach what you talk.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Students pound on the doors of Lutkin Hall, in protest of Jeff Sessions’ talk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although there was a large police presence, as well as some university officials present, Rodriguez said he wasn\u2019t afraid to be there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI always think about how all the people of color wished that they were able to express their voice in the way that some of the people on this campus do, how they would feel if they had the opportunity,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once the event began, protestors progressed to the side of the building, where at least two students were able to get inside the hall. They were physically removed by police officers, and taken out of the building.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Inside the event, Sessions\u2019 talk focused on immigration, foreign policy, and the influencing factors of the 2016 election, The Daily Northwestern <\/span>reported<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dianne Thodos, an Evanston resident, who self-describes as a part-time business person, artist, and political activist, said she decided to come to the protest after hearing about it from Indivisible Evanston, a local branch of the national advocacy group.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s incredibly important to do this because pushing back from grassroots based anger is necessary, it\u2019s the only way we have to fight against this, when this is embedded in our government, when it\u2019s embedded in the larger social sphere, where people think it\u2019s okay to throw acid in the face of a Latino man or to shoot them in a Walmart,\u201d Thodos said.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re in very dangerous times and it has to be resisted, and it has to be called out, always.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thodos cited Sessions\u2019 ideologies as being one of the many dangers she sees as facing America.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJeff Sessions represents a very dangerous tendency in the country from his term as Attorney General and before that time, he represents the destruction of our constitutional rights and the replacement of democratic values with white supremacy,” she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the night wore on, the number of protesters began to dwindle, but the persistence of their voices did not. At approximately 8:20 p.m., when the talk ended, attendees exited from the back doors of the venue. Protesters who had been clanging on the front entrance ran to the back.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were several police escorts helping to escort out the members of the audience. As they exited, audience members met the screams of the protestors with words of their own; some were retorts: \u201cWe\u2019re not racists!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And others expressed\u00a0 proclamations of support for the current president: \u201cTrump 2020! Make America great again!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew Snell, a third year student at Northwestern, was among the attendees of Sessions\u2019 talk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that free speech, especially with speakers, is very important no matter where you are. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s a college campus,\u201d Snell said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He noted that the protesting outside was audible during the event and was \u2018disruptive\u2019 due to Sessions\u2019 soft-spoken voice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s idiotic, I mean General Sessions was correct –\u00a0 this is stupid behavior,\u201d Snell said. \u201cHe called this kind of excessive behavior stupid.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Both attendees and protestors stood in a cluster outside following the event as Sessions was escorted into a vehicle out the front entrance.<\/span><\/p>\n

He announced Thursday that he is running in 2020 for his former U.S. Senate seat in Alabama.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Students hold signs in protest of Sessions’ speech outside of Lutkin Hall. (Nicole Stock\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nicole Stock Medill Reports Huddled outside a performance hall on Northwestern University\u2019s Evanston campus Nov. 5, a group of students banged on the glass panes of the wooden door at Lutkin Hall. \u201cF\u2026k Jeff Sessions!\u201d they chanted, pounding their fists. Many students and community members gathered to protest the invitee of the campus\u2019 college […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":618,"featured_media":82585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[452,4780,28,2951,30,675],"tags":[4846,4847,1506,4848],"class_list":["post-82583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beyond-chicago","category-fall-2019","category-general-interest","category-politicsnational-security","category-public-affairs","category-social-justice","tag-jeff-sessions-2020-election","tag-presdient-donald-triump","tag-protests","tag-russia-investiation"],"yoast_head":"\nJeff Sessions prompts protests as he speaks at Northwestern - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/jeff-sessions-prompts-protests-as-he-speaks-at-northwestern\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jeff Sessions prompts protests as he speaks at Northwestern - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Nicole Stock Medill Reports Huddled outside a performance hall on Northwestern University\u2019s Evanston campus Nov. 5, a group of students banged on the glass panes of the wooden door at Lutkin Hall. \u201cF\u2026k Jeff Sessions!\u201d they chanted, pounding their fists. 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