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Protesters stay the night
By JULIE HAUSERMAN and SHELBY OPPEL © St. Petersburg Times, published November 10, 2000 TALLAHASSEE -- Hundreds of Florida A&M University students staged a sit-in at Florida's Capitol on Thursday, vowing to stay all night unless Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris came to answer their questions about voting irregularities. It was the third major civil-rights protest in Tallahassee since Gov. Jeb Bush took office two years ago, including an all-night sit-in by two black lawmakers in January and a massive civil-rights march featuring the Rev. Jesse Jackson in March. The spectacle of hundreds of angry black students saying they feel disfranchised by the Florida voting process added to one of the craziest political dramas ever to hit Tallahassee. Elsewhere in the capital city Thursday, two former U.S. secretaries of state set up camp to keep an eye on the recount of the presidential election. Dozens of journalists from around the world and political operatives showed up,filling up Tallahassee's downtown hotels. With all that attention focused on the state, students began massing at the Capitol around noon and soon had attracted several prominent Democratic politicians. News cameras rolled as the students raised their fists in the air and sang America the Beautiful in the giant marble rotunda, which is open for several floors. Students craned from balconies all day long, singing spirituals. "You are the new Martin Luther Kings of the world, the new Rosa Parks'!" U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, a Jacksonville Democrat, told the students. "I go monitor elections all over the world. We need help right here in Florida!" The student leaders said they had received numerous complaints from FAMU students who were turned away from polls. It was unclear why the students couldn't vote. Capitol police Col. Terry Meek estimated the initial crowd to be 500 to 800 people, although it dwindled later to a few hundred. Some students left and came back with pillows, blankets and homework. Hoping to avoid a dramatic confrontation as the world looked on, the Capitol police adopted a hands-off approach, allowing the students to stay after the Capitol had closed. Police did, however, warn the students and media that if they left the building, they would not be allowed back in. As the night wore on, the NAACP provided food and water. The protesters initially vowed to stay until Attorney General Bob Butterworth and Secretary of State Harris came to speak with them. Even though their offices are nearby, neither official came out. By evening, the protesters said they would leave if they could just talk to Harris. Student leaders did, however, meet with staffers for Butterworth and Harris. Elections division director Clay Roberts -- already swamped with the recount -- tried patiently to explain the elections process. The students remained unconvinced. GOP Gov. Jeb Bush didn't make an appearance. He was criticized after the January sit-in for closing his office doors to the public while black Democratic lawmakers pounded to be let in. The two Democratic lawmakers who held the January sit-in -- Rep. Tony Hill of Jacksonville and Sen. Kendrick Meek of Miami -- showed up at about 7 p.m. to speak to the protesters. They had been in Palm Beach County with the Rev. Jesse Jackson earlier. "These election irregularities have happened in the past. But now the next leader of the free world is at stake," Meek said. "Hopefully, this will bring attention to folks who think we're just playing when we talk about discrimination." The protesters massed at about 11 a.m. at the nearby FAMU campus and marched to the Capitol. At first, they protested in silence, moving in a wave that soon surrounded the state seal. Network television crews climbed over the velvet ropes and stomped all over the seal so they could get a better angle. "We are here in silent protest, not about the results of the election, but about the discrepancies of the election," FAMU student Senate President Andrew Gillum, 21, said. "'We want the state to do an investigation. We believe there are inconsistencies in the voting process." By midafternoon, the silent protest had given way to a rousing one. "It's great so many people feel so strongly about this that they are willing to make the statement: We are important and our vote does matter," said 15-year-old Heather Millard, a sophomore from Riverview High School in Sarasota who came to the Capitol for a debate tournament and walked into a protest. J.D. Shin, a correspondent for the Korean Central Daily, was intrigued by the spectacle. "From the Korean's view, we thought America doesn't have any problem as far as elections are concerned," Shin said. "This year, these kind of wrong kind of things happen. From this time, we think, America needs to rethink its system of voting." Outside the Capitol Thursday morning, 44-year-old Fred Griffin smiled calmly and carried a Bible. Griffin is a Tallahassee real estate broker and "minister in a major denomination" that he declined to name. Griffin said God told him "to get a suit on, go up there and pray for God to restore America and return us to our moral foundation." Asked if Bush or Gore would be the best candidate to do that, Griffin smiled calmly again. "I believe God called me up here to pray and I don't want to be partisan about it," he said.
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From the Times election desk From the AP national wire  |
