Multiple historically Black colleges and universities in the South were on lockdown or canceled classes on Thursday over potential threats.
Hampton University, Virginia State University, Bethune-Cookman University and Alabama State University were on lockdown after receiving “potential threats to campus safety,” according to posts on school social media pages.
The lockdowns come one day after Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative activist and Trump ally, died after a shooting at a Utah college campus event and on the heels of a wave of active shooter hoaxes at several other college campuses across the country.
Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, also issued a shelter-in-place order, which was lifted on Thursday afternoon after the college said neighboring Clark Atlanta University received a threat. Atlanta Police told CNN they are assisting.
Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was also on lockdown but has since lifted it, and all campus activities and classes are cancelled for Thursday, Friday and through the weekend, it told CNN.
The nature of the threats was not immediately known.
The FBI is aware of “hoax threat calls” to HBCUs, the agency’s Norfolk field office said in an email to CNN.
While authorities have no information to indicate the threats were credible, they are working closely with law enforcement partners to act upon any threats that come to their attention, the email read.
This isn’t the first time that HBCUs have been targeted. In 2022, a wave of threats peaked in January and February when at least 57 colleges received bomb threats via phone calls, e-mails, messages and anonymous online posts, the FBI said at the time. A minor was charged under various state offenses with making dozens of those threats, then FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
CNN has reached out to the institutions for additional information.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the threats against HBCUs “despicable” and added that the “explosion of hateful extremism is out of control.”
He called on the Department of Justice to investigate any potential act of domestic terrorism and “not turn a blind eye when Black college students are apparently being viciously targeted.”
“These attempts to intimidate everyday Americans will not stand. We need leadership at this moment that brings the country together,” the Democratic leader said in a statement.
