ETSU’s Noland gives call to action for more racial diversity in East Tennessee

Standing in a portion of Borchuck Plaza on campus dedicated to the black students who desegregated ETSU, President Brian Noland recorded a message to address the riots and conversations born from the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“The name George Floyd has sparked significant emotion across this country and I know that in the course of the past few days I have wrestled with anger, sympathy, pain, empathy, and other words that I’ll not express,” said Noland

The Johnson City campus has been a site of notable racial conversation in recent years. That includes a 2016 Black Lives Matter rally where an incoming freshman wore a gorilla mask and overalls standing in front of black students dangling a banana with a rope-like noose.

That student was found not guilty last year of civil rights intimidation.

“Let’s rise above the violence and come together as a campus, a community, and as a region to learn, to listen, to share, but more importantly, to let each other know how we feel,” said the ETSU President.

(PHOTO: ETSU / Facebook)