Demonstrators celebrate after Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump canceled his rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago March 11, 2016. Photo: Reuters
Chicago, (IINA) - The well-planned protest that shut down a Donald Trump campaign rally from taking place on Friday on the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois was led by the city's Latino, Black and Muslim activists, TeleSUR Television network reported.
After learning that Trump would be speaking on campus, a group of students and faculty members asked the university to cancel the rally, given Trump's racist rhetoric.
However, the university denied their request. This encouraged several student groups, including the Black Student Union, Muslim Student Association and the Fearless Undocumented Alliance to organize a massive protest.
The groups began by organizing on Facebook and other social media as well as an online petition site called Moveon.org, which donated printed signs, urging students and other supporters to “help stop Trump.” Other organizations eventually joined the group, including Black Lives Matter and Assata's Daughters.
The anti-Trump protesters met a couple of hours before the presidential hopeful was due to speak on a different part of campus, then marched to the UIC Pavilion, carrying a banner saying “Trump makes America hate. Our students make America great.”
But that was not all, the protesters had pre-arranged that some 2,500 of them would be on the street outside but hundreds more clandestinely waiting inside.
They were silently biding their time until Trump started to speak, at which time they would each stand up, chanting, disrupt the speech and build to a crescendo. Their motivations were to peacefully interrupt the candidate.
According to one organizer with the Latino group Mijente, who was at the Trump rally, protesters celebrated the shut down. Some started chanting, “We stopped Trump” while others sung the lyrics to the Kendrick Lamar song, “We Gon' Be Alright.”
Activists also said that this will not be the last protest.
SM/IINA
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