Posters and stickers referencing a known white supremacist group were found attached to doors, signs, and posts at various locations on the campus of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. A man placed multiple “Patriotfront” stickers on public property including stop signs, no-parking signs, and poles for street lights, according to police. The man put up about two dozen stickers on university property.
St. Thomas University enrolls more than 6,300 undergraduate students and nearly 3,500 graduate students, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education. African Americans are just 4 percent of the undergraduate student body.
The Diversity Action Response Team (DART) at the university said the signs were removed and that St. Thomas Public Safety was working with St. Paul Police to investigate the incident. Public Safety reviewed video from 21 cameras as part of the investigation.
In response, approximately 200 students, faculty, and staff members held a peaceful rally at the John P. Monahan Plaza outside Anderson Student Center on the university’s campus. Yohuru Williams, professor of history and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas, told the crowd that “a cold front blew through here the other day with a message of hate, but the warm front’s here now, and it’s a message of change.”
