Shawna Varner knew why she was at the rally on the Bowling Green State University campus Sunday night.
Her reason was right on her lap. Her baby boy, Kaisen Broach, was drinking from his bottle and grabbing
at a reporter’s pen.
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Varner, a senior at BGSU, had rushed over after work to join the rally prompted by the fatal shooting of
Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer on Aug. 9. The rally, said Greg Harrison, the
president of the Black Student Union, was intended "to raise awareness of state violence and police
brutality."
The cause was a personal one for Varner. Looking at her son, she said: "He’s a black boy growing up
in a cruel world."
More than 150 people gathered in the circle in front of the Bowen-Thompson Student Union for the rally,
organized by the BSU.
While the vigil was prompted by the shooting of Brown, Tobias Spears, the advisor for the BSU, said those
present should keep in mind other victims of white-on-black violence including Renisha McBride, who was
shot and killed by a Michigan man last year, and Eric Garner, who was killed while being arrested in New
York.
Raising awareness of the issue grows more important as the university and the Bowling Green community as
a whole grows more diverse, said Harrison.
As a young black man, he knows he’s a lot like Michael Brown. Though he’s never had that kind of intense
confrontation, he knows "I could definitely be Michael Brown."
The turnout about a week before classes start, when most students were not on campus, was heartening, he
said. Many students traveled back to campus for the rally.
The vigil brought together "the entire community, the campus and the city" in a show of
solidarity to try to prevent a similar tragedy here, he said.
Those assembled heard a poem by Alicia Cleveland that defiantly maintained "we won’t allow it to be
done anymore."
The group then marched from campus down East Wooster on the sidewalks to the Four Corners, and then back
to campus.
As they marched they chanted the slogan that has come to signify the protests over Michael Brown’s
killing: "Hands up! Don’t shoot."
Sydney Howell, the vice president of the BSU, said she was surprised by the turnout. "There’s power
in numbers."
Sidney Childs, assistant vice president of student affairs, urged students to take their efforts to
"the next level" to make the university and city better places and to make themselves better
people.
City council members Sandy Rowland and Daniel Gordon expressed their support for the rally.
Rowland said if they need anything, just ask. "We love you."
Gordon said this was the kind of revitalization the city needs.
For Varner, just having people gather, especially a group of African Americans, was good. But she and her
friend Delina Dixon agreed it would be better if it didn’t take a tragedy to bring them together.
Sometime they would like to rally with something to celebrate.
