Spelman College Target Of Second Bomb Threat During Black History Month

ATLANTA, GA — Spelman College was again targeted for a bomb threat Tuesday, campus officials said.

Late Tuesday morning, school officials issued a shelter-in-place order for students and staff and locked down the campus, according to an announcement issued via social media.

“The campus was on lockdown for four hours while officials completed a thorough sweep of the campus,” the announcement said. “Classes are canceled for today and the campus is closed to visitors.”

This is the second time in just over a week that the all-women Historically Black College was closed down due to a bomb scare. Including Spelman, at least 17 HBCUs were targeted.

"These threats are despicable. They are designed to make us feel fearful and vulnerable," Spelman President Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D. said in a statement reported by Fox 5 Atlanta.

Albany State University and Fort Valley State University were two other Georgia schools threatened. But across the nation Kentucky State University, Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, Morgan State University in Baltimore, Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., Howard University and the University of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C., Xavier University of Louisiana, Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi and Jackson State University in Mississippi each received bomb threats dating back to Feb. 1, the beginning of Black History Month.

The FBI is working with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to investigate the threats, Fox 5 reports. FBI agents last week linked some (but not all) of the bomb threats to six tech-savvy young people believed to be aligned with a neo-Nazi group.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center noted that the timing of the threats coincided with the celebration of Black History Month.

“The hate and extremism of these young people is as great a threat as any extremist group,” the SPLC statement said. “Not only is their immaturity a factor, but often their devotion to perceived causes is due to a yearning to belong. Further, their actions make an even greater case for why discussions of race, and racial justice, must be a part of truth in learning in classrooms across the U.S.”