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Multiple Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have gone into lockdown after threats were directed at the campus, school officials announced.
Alabama State University, Hampton University, Virginia State University, Southern University and A&M Collegeand Bethune-Cookman University locked down the morning of Thursday, Sept. 11, each citing potential threats made against the campuses. The lockdown at Southern University was later lifted, but all campus activities and classes were cancelled through the weekend, school officials announced on social media.
Spelman College in Atlanta also asked students and faculty to avoid campus and increased security measures due to a threat against nearby Clark Atlanta University, though the shelter-in-place order was later lifted. Clark Atlanta University confirmed in a statement to USA TODAY that campus police are investigating threats and a shelter-in-place order has ended.
Virginia State shared an “urgent alert” at 8:30 a.m. ET, declaring the campus closed and advising students, faculty, and staff to check their emails. Campus police are “actively investigating the credibility of the threat received earlier today” along with local, state and federal law enforcement partners, the university said in a statement.
Alabama State told USA TODAY in a statement that it received “terrorist threats” and that it had shut down campus operations out of an abundance of caution.
“We are working in close coordination with the appropriate law enforcement agencies to assess the situation and to ensure the safety and security of our students, faculty, staff, and the broader ASU community,” the statement said.
Hampton University canceled classes for Sept. 11 and 12, saying in a statement“Hampton University has received notice of a potential threat and has ceased all non-essential activity, effective immediately.”
Lockdowns follow years of threats, violence at HBCUs
MSNBC host Rev. Al Sharpton condemned the threats, noting that several of the nation’s roughly 100 HBCUs have been targeted in recent years. USA TODAY found more than two dozen HBCUs in 12 states and Washington, D.C., were targeted by bomb threats in 2022prompting a federal hate crime and violent extremism investigation.
In 2023, officials said a gunman was confronted by campus security at Edward Waters University, the first historically Black college in Florida, before shooting three people at a nearby Dollar General store. Students at Tuskegee University, a private, historically Black institution, were among those wounded after gunfire erupted on campus in 2024leaving one person dead and 16 others injured.
“We have seen too much violence on our campuses, whether it was the brazen murder of Charlie Kirk yesterday or the threats against these HBCUs today,” Sharpton said in a statement. “Colleges and Universities should be a place of free expression and debate in a way that’s respectful, engaging, and productive. What we have seen the last two days is anything but that.”
Contributing: John BaconAlex GladdenThao NguyenFrancisco Guzman and Claire Thornton
(This story was updated to include video.)