Smyrna High School students on Thursday held a large “sit in” at the school to protest the removal of a mural featuring a quote from political activist Angela Davis, school district officials said.
As a result of the protest, Smyrna High School dismissed all students at 12:30 p.m. Students are out of school Friday and all of next week for spring break.
According to videos and posts shared on social media, the mural depicts an image of Davis with the words “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change… I am changing the things I cannot accept” painted in white letters.
Smyrna School District Superintendent Patrik Williams said the mural was painted by several students “under the supervision of staff” and was “carefully created to celebrate the power of positive social change.”
But, he said, the district learned late Wednesday night that “the subject of this painting has also been connected to a variety of additional causes, including advocacy for the state of Palestine.”
Williams added that officials also then learned that, “for this reason,” another community group objected to displaying the painting.
“In short, a student group supervised by staff at Smyrna High School created this painting strictly to celebrate diversity, inclusion and belonging but has subsequently learned that doing so has unwittingly and unintentionally muted and marginalized another valued group in our community,” Williams wrote in a news release.
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Davis, a political activist, was a member of the Black Panthers, a civil rights group founded to protest police brutality. She rose to global attention in the 1970s when she was imprisoned for reportedly attempting to break another prominent Black activist out of jail.
A scholar, professor and author, she recently spoke in Wilmington as part of the city library’s Living Legend Series. There, she discussed her advocacy for gender equity and prison abolition.
In recent years, Davis has said she stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their conflict with Israel. In interviews, she compared the Palestinian goal of returned land and independence to Black liberation.
Her public support of Palestine – as well as the pro-Palestine boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which seeks to end “Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism” – has been called anti-Semitic by some critics.
The student of one Smyrna High School student posted on Facebook that he believes this is why the mural was removed.
Williams did not elaborate on students’ complaints about the mural, but said that until district officials can bring the groups together “in an effort to communicate, educate and honor one another in a way that is mutually agreeable and fosters true inclusion,” the painting has been removed and will “remain out of sight.”
Photos and videos shared to several social media sites showed students sitting in the high school’s foyer, at times chanting “Leave it up.”
At one point, a young woman spoke to the crowd, saying “the Board of Education is meeting to talk about it so we’re just here to show our support and our backing behind the mural.”
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She continued, saying “If you’re here for that reason, then be quiet and be respectful. If you’re not here for that reason and you don’t want to support, you’re welcome to leave.”
Williams said the protest remained peaceful. Smyrna Police Department spokesman Lt. Brian Donner echoed Williams, saying while the department’s regularly-assigned school resource officers were present, “the protest was peaceful and no other police resources were needed.”
Reporter Ben Mace contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Return to delawareonline.com for updates.
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