Dear Dartmouth Community,

Last Thursday, Student Assembly and the NAACP opened their #BlackLivesMatter exhibit in Collis Atrium representing the violence inflicted on black bodies by law enforcement. The exhibit displays 74 shirts hanging in Collis which represents the 74 unarmed individuals killed by police so far this year. The 28 black shirts represent the 28 unarmed black individuals who have lost their lives to police brutality this year alone.

Hours after the exhibit opened, students began to vandalize the display and rip shirts off the exhibit. In response to this and the incidents occurring on campus at Yale University and the University of Missouri, the NAACP will be organizing a campus wide Blackout, asking all members of the community to dress in black all day today in solidarity with the brave black students at Missou, Yale, and the #BlackLivesMatter movement as a whole.

The plan is to meet at the base of the steps in Novack Cafe at 8:00pm. From there, we will march together to Dartmouth Hall for a group picture. The movement will be going nation-wide as many other colleges have also joined and will be wearing all black in solidarity today. Colleges and Universities across the country will be organizing events around this blackout and documenting with the hashtags #CollegeBlackout and #ConcernedStudent1950.

A nationwide social media campaign will begin at 7:30pm tonight EST so post any personal #CollegeBlackout pictures after this time, while continuing to spread the word about the event all day today.

In Solidarity,