“We shall not be, we shall not be moved… we shall not be, we shall not be moved,” students was sang in chorus in the back of a Howard University auditorium on Friday as former FBI director James Comey took the stage.

When Comey began his opening remarks as keynote speaker at the 2017 Opening Convocation, about 50 students immediately began singing the Negro spiritual.

The student protesters are a group called #HUResist, and they livestreamed the scene on Friday. In a tweet, the group said they planned to protest because Comey is responsible for surveillance against minority groups, including Black Lives Matter.

The students stood up in the back of Cramton Auditorium with their fists in the air, shouting chants like “Get out James Comey, get out our home” and “No justice no peace!”

After nearly 10 minutes, Bernard Richardson, dean of Howard’s Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel, took the microphone. “That’s not the Howard University way,” Richardson said, followed by applause from the audience, and more chanting from protesters.

Comey eventually resumed his speech while protests continued. “I hope you’ll stay and listen to what I have to say,” he said. “I love the enthusiasm of the young folks, I just wish they would understand what a conversation is… a conversion is where when you speak and I listen and I speak and you listen and we go back and forth.”

Former President Barack Obama appointed Comey as FBI director, and he remained in the position until President Donald Trump fired him in May. Howard officials announced in August that they appointed Comey as its 2017-2018 Gwendolyn S. and Colbert I. King Endowed Chair in Public Policy, which included welcoming new students by speaking at the convocation.

According to #HUResist protesters, Comey continued a long history of the FBI surveilling minority people and communities. During his tenure, the FBI conducted surveillance on Black Lives Matter and drew “false conclusions about Black Lives Matter’s impact on policing,” according to a tweet from the group.

“It’s insane that Howard, a historically black university, would even think to invite James Comey to be the keynote speaker at convocation,” student organizers said.

An overwhelming percentage of the audience was in favor of hearing Comey and sided with dean Richardson.

“What just happened is not the Howard way at all,” freshman Brittiany Royster, told CNN. “I wanted to hear him out. I love being black, but I also love being black and educated. And in order to do that, is to choose intellect over ignorance—you have to keep an open mind and hear all parties out.”

Former HU student and award-winning writer Ta-Nehisi Coates told The Root in August that he thought the appointment was “an excellent move for the university.”

“When I was at Howard, the best part about it was the people you disagreed with, the people you got to fight with. So those kids having the opportunity to go back and forth with him, that’s going to be awesome.”

“And it will be a respectful thing, too,” Coates told The Root, referencing a video of Rand Paul speaking at Howard in 2015. “They’re just gonna let him know they know their shit. I have no doubt they will take him to task. I’m certain of it.” And he was correct.

Following the protest, #HUResist sent out a release about their actions.

Filed Under: comey, howard university, james,