More than 70 protesters marched from San Jose City Hall to the Sigma Chi fraternity house on Monday evening in memory of Gregory Johnson Jr., a 20-year-old San Jose State student who was found dead in the house in November 2008.
Among the protesters were San Jose State students, local community members and advocacy groups including Black Liberation and Collective Knowledge (B.L.A.C.K) Outreach.
Gregory Johnson Jr.’s death was ruled a suicide by the University Police Department and the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office, according to the coroner’s office autopsy report.
Johnson’s family and community supporters believe Gregory Johnson Jr. was murdered in a hate crime and have called on community officials to reopen the investigation.
SJSU President Mary Papazian stated in a Feb. 18 campuswide email that the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and Coroner's office agreed to undertake a new review of the coroner's report, “once the pandemic allows them to do so,” and the university will cooperate with any requests for information.
Papazian stated in the same email while privacy concerns limit what can be publicly disclosed about the case, UPD’s investigation, which involved interviewing more than 30 witnesses, revealed no evidence of “foul play.”
Papazian said there’s been no new evidence which would warrant reopening the case since the conclusion of the investigation in 2009.
“The Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office laughed at me when I told them I found a crack in the back of my son’s head and his neck was broken,” Denise Johnson, Gregory Johnson Jr.’s mother, said during the event.
The evening demonstration took place at the same time as Sigma Chi’s “alumni night.”
The alumni event was part of the fraternity’s fall rush events, according to an Instagram flyer posted by the Sigma Chi SJSU chapter.
President of B.L.A.C.K Outreach Lou Dimes said if the Sigma Chi fraternity members really stood with Gregory Johnson Jr.’s movement they would “walk out of that house.”
On Nov. 3, a few active fraternity members of Sigma Chi revealed a mural they painted of Gregory Johnson Jr. during a demonstration for Johnson.
“We put together this mural to immortalize his legacy,” the Nov. 4 Sigma Chi fraternity Instagram post read.
On June 5 2020, the fraternity also made an Instagram statement acknowledging the Black Lives Matter movement and Gregory Johnson Jr.
Gregory Johnson Jr. was the only Black member living in the fraternity house at the time, the Johnson family said.
“Gregory Johnson Jr. didn't get to become an alumni, he was murdered,” Dimes said at city hall before the crowd took to the Downtown San Jose streets. “If [Sigma Chi fraternity members] are honoring the alumni, they're honoring his murder.”
The crowd marched down East Santa Clara Street chanting Gregory Johnson Jr.’s name.
The protesters arrived at the Sigma Chi fraternity house and continued chanting, with some specifically calling out the Sigma Chi members and alumni to face Gregory Johnson Jr. supporters.
Several students said they’re not satisfied with the status of Gregory Johnson Jr.’s case.
Sociology freshman Victoria Gates said she wants the university to hold the Sigma Chi fraternity “accountable.”
“Without [the university] holding these boys accountable, I feel as though they are protecting themselves [as administrators],” Gates said. “But, the idea is that they were supposed to protect Gregory and they didn’t.”
Sociology senior Amy Estrada said she believes the university mishandled Gregory Johnson Jr.’s case.
“What we’re demanding is clear. We’re not asking for a scholarship. We’re not asking for a memorial,” Estrada said in an interview during the demonstration. “We’re asking for justice. We’re asking for Sigma Chi to be banned from campus, and to be abolished. We’re asking for the case to be reopened.”
The Associated Students board of directors passed a resolution in honor of Gregory Johnson Jr. in April titled “Addressing Anti-Blackness and Systemic Racism at SJSU.”
The resolution calls on SJSU to provide more resources for Black students and to acknowledge racism was a factor in Gregory Johnson Jr. 's death.
In the resolution, A.S. board directors said they will also create and fund a scholarship in Gregory Johnson Jr.’s name, intended to support Black students.
Denise Johnson said she met briefly with President Papazian and Patrick Day, vice president for student affairs, via Zoom in July to discuss the case.
Johnson said Day expressed he doesn’t see “any reason” to shut the fraternity down during the meeting.
Amy Estrada said she doesn’t feel safe walking past the Sigma Chi fraternity house, which is a couple hundred feet from the main campus on South 10th Street.
“We’re not going to stop until there’s justice,” Estrada said. “The momentum is important because the more people know, the more we’re informed and the more the movement will continue to grow.”
Lou Dimes said B.L.A.C.K. Outreach and Gregory Johnson Jr. supporters will be holding protests every Friday in September.
“We’re demanding continuation [of the movement],” Dimes said. “We ought to take the avenues that this form of democracy allows us to take in order to do things, legitimately.”
