Civil rights activist Harry Edwards, alumnus and former assistant professor of sociology at SJSU, made an email statement regarding the encampment to the Spartan Daily on Wednesday evening.
Four well-known activists and San José State alumni are calling for the immediate dismantlement of the pro-Palestinian encampment surrounding the Victory Salute statue.
The statement was signed by Harry Edwards and SJSU alumni Tommie Smith, Ken Noel and John Carlos.
“The protest there is inappropriate because the statue and the ellipse of space around it were conceived and created to constitute a single ‘LEGACY MONUMENT,’ ” the statement read.
The statement has three requests:
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That the protest encampment at the statue and the surrounding ellipse be totally dismantled and removed immediately.
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That the statue and the surrounding ellipse site be returned to their state and condition prior to the protest.
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The protesters, student government and university administrators undertake discussions to arrive at agreeable arrangements and accommodations regarding freedom of speech and protest. All parties must resolve those issues and forestall inadvertent establishment of another inappropriate and/or counter-productive protest site or any other similar efforts on campus.
Spartan Daily made multiple attempts to contact both Tommie Smith and John Carlos, but was unable to receive a comment.
The Victory Salute statue depicts the likenesses of Tommie Smith and John Carlos protesting racial injustice on the podium of the 1968 Summer Olympics, according to its SJSU website.
“There is also the real risk going forward that tolerating the statue and ellipse site as a stage for protest encampments will invite any and every other emerging ‘cause’ to commandeer the ellipse and statue as backdrops for their diverse protest,” the email stated.
Smith and Carlos both expressed disappointment and disapproval of how the statue was being used, according to an Instagram post published by SJSU.
Ricardo Gouveia, an artist known as “Rigo 23,” who designed the Victory Salute statue in 2005, spoke at the encampment on Wednesday evening.
“I see nothing disrespectful, I see nothing ill meaning (and) done with intent to offend anybody,” Gouveia said.
He said he doesn’t understand why the university doesn’t embrace the students and give them a platform.
Gouveia made a collaborative Instagram post with the official Instagram account of Tommie Smith that was written in support of pro-Palestinian protests on campus on Sunday.
A collaborative post on Instagram allows multiple accounts to share and co-author the same post, according to the Instagram Help Center website.
All users must approve an invite sent to their account in order to share the collaborative post on their own profile, according to the same website.
The Spartan Daily was unable to confirm if Smith himself approved of the post that was posted on his Instagram account using the collaborative post feature.
“I really find it so puzzling, why the adults in this society – the people who actually have responsibility in the way things are,” Gouveia said, “Why (don’t) they embrace the students?”
Michelle Smith McDonald, the senior director of Media Relations for SJSU, said the university just wants the statue to be treated with respect.
“We don’t want items on the statues displayed on the statues.” McDonald said. “We just want the statues to be left alone.”
McDonald said the university doesn’t believe it’s appropriate to display things on the statues and is concerned about potential damages.
Gouveia said he has been to SJSU a few times over the past 20 years to restore the statue, and loves that the students feel a sense of ownership towards the presence on campus.
“This is a gesture from this community, providing a platform for those more vocally minded to step up and speak, what’s consuming their hearts,” Gouveia said.
