Divinity school professors among participants in ‘scholar strike’ for racial justice
Anthea Butler, professor of religious studies and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said thousands of faculty supported a “scholar strike” for two days in September, during which they focused on racial injustice in or out of their classrooms.
“I would be down as a professor to follow the NBA and strike for a few days to protest police violence in America,” said Butler in an August 26 tweet. After that, Butler said, more than 5,000 faculty backed the initiative, which started on September 8.
In a blog post, Butler and co-organizer Kevin Gannon, professor of history at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, said the initiative—reminiscent of 1960s teach-ins—is a response to the August 23 shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the killing of two demonstrators days later.
