U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.) will come to the University of Maryland on Aug. 31, to speak about race, hate bias incidents and the atmosphere on the campus, according to a university news release.
The event, called “Race, Politics and Reconciliation: A Conversation with Congressman Anthony G. Brown,” will be at 4 p.m. in the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center. Ja’Nya Banks, the Student Government Association’s diversity and inclusion director, will introduce Brown, who will later take questions from audience members.
Brown called on the Trump administration in May to help end “a dangerous rising tide” of hatred on college campuses after the death of Richard Collins, a black Bowie State University student who was fatally stabbed at this university. Sean Urbanski, then a student at this university, was indicted on one count of murder in the killing.
University Police and the FBI are investigating the incident as a potential hate crime, as Urbanski belonged to a racist Facebook group titled “Alt-Reich: Nation.” But as of July, officials said there was not enough evidence to add hate crime charges, though it’s possible they could come in the future.
“I’m calling on the administration – that has repeatedly failed to denounce the hate crimes directed at Jews, members of the LGBT community, or immigrants – to denounce the hate-fueled killing of a black soldier,” Brown said on the floor of the House of Representatives on May 24. “If this escalation of hate is going to end in Maryland and across the country, it’ll be because all of us take a stand.”
The stabbing was one of multiple events on the campus last year being investigated as possible hate incidents. University Police receive five reports of white nationalist posters throughout the academic year, and a noose was found in the Phi Kappa Tau chapter house kitchen in April.
