Tallahassee, FL – Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, the state’s only public HBCU, has expelled a prominent student organizer and community leader for protesting the university’s new MAGA-backed president.

Elijah Hooks, a political science student on the cusp of graduation, organized a rally on May 14 to oppose the appointment of Marva Johnson as FAMU’s next president. Johnson is an ally of far-right Governor Ron DeSantis with no experience in higher education.

The movement saw massive support from students and alumni alike. Hooks collected over 12,500 signatures for his petition, “FAMU Deserves Bette.r. Despite overwhelming public outcry over Johnson’s selection, her connections to the Republican Party won her a position she did not deserve.

FAMU’s trustees and Board of Governors have already tried to make preemptive concessions to Trump and DeSantis’ attacks on education and Black students. After speaking at the board of trustees meeting, which he had received permission to do, Hooks was immediately escorted out of the building by FAMU PD officers without explanation. FAMU admin suspended him by email without any publicly stated reason for the second time, even though both the student body and Board of Trustees Chair Kristin Harper opposed the decision.

On September 17, Elijah attended another meeting of the board of trustees carrying a heartfelt letter asking the board to do something about the political repression he was facing. As soon as he walked through the door, he was jumped and assaulted by police. A FAMU PD lieutenant grabbed Hooks, slammed his head into a brick wall, and began choking him as his colleagues watched. Elijah was too shocked to resist but was still ruthlessly brutalized by the police, who laughed at him as he begged for medical attention from the backseat of a cop car.

Hooks was taken to jail, where he was subjected to further abuse at the hands of this country’s racist injustice system. Despite his four years as an exemplary leader of the FAMU student body, the officers called him a “threat” to his own university. He was illegally held until 3 a.m. and kept in custody for 13 hours after his bond had been posted. His statement on his arrest recounts terrifying and inhumane treatment.

“I was treated like an animal. I was placed in a dark, filthy, blood-filled and feces-covered segregation cell surrounded by violent offenders, including [those] convicted of second-degree murder and rape. This was not the place for someone like me. Yet, I was there. For 48 hours, I suffered in isolation, unable to receive proper medical care for a head injury sustained during the assault. My medication was withheld, and I was left to endure the physical and emotional pain.

In those long, painful hours, I turned to God and asked, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’ I am not perfect, but no one deserves to be treated like this. No one deserves to be vilified for standing up for what’s right.”

Hooks has been expelled and charged by FAMU admin with “trespassing” on the grounds of his own university, with “disorderly conduct” despite not resisting while being assaulted, and, appallingly, with two felonies that he did not commit. After spending the last four years serving the people of FAMU as student body attorney general, representing over 430,000 students as a leader of the Florida Student Association, and advocating for the campus community’s interests on the Florida Democratic Party’s State Executive Committee, Elijah Hooks has much more of a right to be there than Marva Johnson.

Tallahassee’s students won’t stand by – we’ll stand up and fight back! Already, over 18,000 people have signed a petition calling for his reinstatement, and FAMU Students for a Democratic Society will be leading a rally this week demanding justice for Elijah Hooks!

To learn more about the rally, follow @famusdsofficial on Instagram.

Sign the petition here.

Donate to help Elijah pay his medical and legal bills here.

#TallahasseeFL #FL #StudentMovement #InJusticeSystem

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