JGG! campaign: Jefferson has gotta go a little farther than that
Photo Courtesy of Ethan Duran
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
With just one sentence, Thomas Jefferson implied that the United States was committed to the equality of all people. Yet he would go on to enslave over 600 humans in his lifetime.
Jefferson had tunnels constructed beneath Monticello, the plantation he inherited from his father, for the enslaved to work tirelessly and unseen. He raped countless enslaved women, most notably Sally Hemings, who was about 15 when she left her life in Paris after Jefferson promised her immense privilege and luxury at Monticello if she returned to slavery. Still a young teenager, Hemings lost the right to decline Jefferson’s sexual advances and was forced to carry six of his children. Jefferson also supported the eugenics movement, hoping that racial inferiority could be scientifically proven and used to justify slavery.
In immortalizing Jefferson through buildings and statues, the Black community is reminded of his racist, oppressive and abusive tendencies. For Black students at Hofstra University, this reminder comes daily. For years, they’ve been met with a bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson on their way into the Student Center.
Student-led initiative Jefferson Has Gotta Go! (JGG!) has been calling on Hofstra to remove the statue since 2018, and this week, amid nationwide civil unrest and protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, the university decided to relocate the statue to a new on-campus location.
But the relocation of the statue doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of JGG!’s concerns and demands – the group of student activists has reignited the fight for racial justice on campus, and their campaign to remove the statue over the past three years is representative of a much larger, pervasive problem of racism at Hofstra.
After a petition started on Change.org in March 2018 gained traction among Hofstra students, the JGG! campaign went on to organize a protest in front of the statue, as well as a silent protest at one of the university’s annual town halls. They also created a list of demands for the university.
President Stuart Rabinowitz had initially stated in May 2018 that the statue would remain in its current location, but on Tuesday, June 23, he announced plans to relocate the statue from the Student Center entrance to the west side of the Emily Lowe Museum. The statue’s new location is across Shapiro Family Hall and visible to passersby entering campus from the west side – a move that Rabinowitz said was in alignment with the demands expressed by JGG! in past years.
“It’s not really a victory, because they didn’t actually do anything in accordance with our demands,” said Rosario Navalta, a history and religion double major and the current head organizer of the JGG! campaign at Hofstra.
While JGG! has always called for the statue’s removal, their only compromise was the relocation of the statue to an indoor location, like a museum or an archive, where Black students wouldn’t have to interact with it on a daily basis. “The least you could do is get it out of our sight,” Navalta said. “Nobody wants to see it. It’s caused enough grief. We’re done.”
Hofstra’s decision to relocate the statue comes during a pivotal moment in history. Since the death of George Floyd on Monday, May 25, the U.S. has seen large-scale public outcry against racism and overall heightened awareness of white privilege. Monuments of Confederate soldiers, colonizers and slave owners are being removed or toppled, and institutions like Hofstra are being called on to rethink their ethics, policies and choices – something that students have been asking the university to do for many years.
“The protests for getting rid of the statue have been around since 2004. That’s why I kind of keep it in the back of my mind that [it] has taken the university almost two decades to even consider moving the statue,” Navalta said. “The fact that they could easily relocate it means to me [that] they could also just as easily remove it.”
Navalta also said that Hofstra University did not contact them or their fellow organizers during the process of moving the statue.
“I think it’s wild that they would take this opportunity to take advantage of a movement that’s about Black people [to just] be like, ‘Look at how good we are,’” they said. “It’s one thing to be told the people who have power will not use their power to help you. It’s another thing to then find out that they were just going to do it really shadily. The only reason they really released that statement was genuinely because students are finding out, taking pictures [and] telling each other.”
JGG!’s previous attempts at starting a dialogue with university officials have not run smoothly either. Navalta recalled an incident that happened after the initial campaign in 2018, where JGG! agreed to meet with Rabinowitz only to find out that they would only have three minutes to voice their concerns, and that the counter-protestors would be invited to the meeting as well. “We basically abstained,” Navalta said. “We were just like, ‘We’re not going’ ... If you are going to make time in your day to listen to students, you had better make the time. [Three minutes] to explain the grievances that students have against you as an administration [is] not enough time.”
In contrast to the three-minute time cap put on student voices, Navalta also recalled a town hall where Rabinowitz addressed a room of student activists with marginalized identities. “We had a silent protest at a town hall,” they said. “That was the same town hall where I got to listen to President Rabinowitz explain [the] Black Lives Matter [movement] to a bunch of people of color, specifically Black trans youth organizers, which was super fun to listen to.”
Despite the challenges, JGG! has already made a mark on campus culture. In the 2018-19 school year, their #BigotryAtHofstra campaign sought to keep the conversation alive and get more of the student body involved with the JGG! campaign, despite administrators holding that they were unable to do anything about the statue. Members carried signs inviting students to ask them about bigotry, racism and transphobia at Hofstra, among other issues.
Navalta also believes that JGG! helped expedite the creation of a new administrative position at Hofstra, as well as an online reporting system. “We wanted an online reporting system that provides students with a complaint receipt, as well as the instatement of a Chief Diversity Inclusion officer, which is [now] Cornell Craig,” they said. “Jefferson Has Gotta Go! made both more urgent.”
Looking ahead to the future, JGG! is in the process of writing a list of demands and hopes that recent events will create even more enthusiasm among students. Navalta stressed that representation isn’t the same thing as true equity and safety for marginalized groups on campus, urging people to be critical of buzzwords and phrases like “diversity and inclusion.” “You can talk about diversity all you want,” they said. “That doesn’t mean that your school is safe for these people. It just means you want them there.”
“It’s been made abundantly clear to my Black friends that Hofstra has never been a place [that fights] for Black students, for marginalized students, for gay students, trans students ... Because students have been saying this for a very long time, and now Hofstra is kind of reaping the benefits,” Navalta said. “Like, ‘Look at all of this activism that’s brewing here on campus!’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this, but activism on campus against the university is not a good look. It’s not cute. It’s bad.’”
As head organizer, Navalta has begun preparing for the start of the semester. In addition to crafting a new list of demands, they are actively working on a plan to keep the momentum going. Navalta’s unwavering drive to fight injustice on campus has allowed the JGG! campaign to gain the support of the drama and history departments as well as many Hofstra alumni. In addition, an alumnus has started a new petition condemning the move to Emily Lowe Hall.
“We don’t learn anything from idolizing history, even the cool people or the people who are awesome,” Navalta said. “You cannot historicize – that’s the number one lesson you learn as a history student. You cannot idolize or leave people to the annals of history. You were bad for your time and you will stay bad for your time.”
For more information on JGG! and to learn more about the history of the campaign, check out their website here.
A previous version of this article stated that the statue’s new location is adjacent to the university’s drama and dance department buildings, making it visible to students and visitors passing by in the quad. This statement is inaccurate and has since been updated.
