After about 20 members of a neo-Nazi organization gathered in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday, the news broke Monday that six Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) received bomb threats. There’s no indication that the two events are connected, but it does raise questions about where this country is heading. 

Southern University and A&M, Howard University, Bethune-Cookman University, Albany State University, Bowie State University, and Delaware State University all received bomb threats this morning, according to campus spokespeople or social media posts. Bowie State closed the school and advised that all persons on campus shelter in place. The announcement was made on Twitter Monday morning.

According to CNN, D.C. police said the “scene had been cleared with no hazardous materials found” at Howard University. The other five schools continue to investigate the threats; they all remain either on lockdown or have issued a shelter-in-place order.

The rally in Orlanda was organized by the National Socialist Movement (NSM) and was live-streamed on the American Nazi Party’s website. Participants chanted “The Jew is the devil” and “Jews rape children and drink their blood,” StopAntisemitism.org tweeted. 

NSM is one of the largest and most prominent neo-Nazi groups in the U.S., led by Burt Colucci, of Kissimmee, Florida. 

The Anti-Defamation League calls NSM “an Americanized and modernized neo-Nazi group,” underscoring how the NSM platform “calls for an all-white ‘greater America’ that would deny citizenship and virtually all legal protection to non-whites, Jews, and the LGBTQ population.”

According to one woman in Florida, her son witnessed a fight between the neo-Nazis and a driver passing by. 

Local and statewide officials have condemned the event.

Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Chris Sprowls called out the Nazis, saying, “Yesterday’s disgusting display of anti-semitism in Orlando does not reflect the values of Floridians. These thugs and their hateful messaging are not welcome in this state.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis has been deafeningly silent. According to the Orlando Sentinel, his top spokesperson, Christina Pushaw, questioned whether the swastika-laded boobs were actually Nazis. 

In a tweet that she later deleted, she asked “Do we even know they’re Nazis?” Adding: Or is this a stunt like the “white nationalists” who crashed the Youngkin rally in Charlottesville and turned out to be Dem staffers? I trust Florida law enforcement to investigate and am awaiting their conclusions.”

Democratic Rep. Mike Grieco of Miami Beach tweeted: “Just because she deleted it doesn’t mean she didn’t tweet it.” 

Orange Sheriff John Mina promised to “thoroughly” investigate any criminal activity by the demonstrators.

Mina tweeted: “I am aware of the antisemitic demonstration in Orange County. I along with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office deplore any type of hate speech. This hatred has no place in our society.”

Rep. Val Demings (D-Orlando) tweeted that “America beat disturbing ideology before and we’ll do it again.” She added: “As a police commander I saw similar rallies, and I also saw that for every nazi there were a hundred Floridians there to stand up for what’s right.”

Republican Sen. Rick Scott said that such demonstrations in Orlando and elsewhere in Florida “have no place in our state.”

“Across America, we’ve seen a heartbreaking & disgusting rise in hate like this,” his statement said. “We must always condemn it & continue to stand strongly with our Jewish communities.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer tweeted,  “Anti-semitism and hatred are not welcome in this community.” Adding: “Despite displays of hate in Central Florida this weekend, our collective commitment to building an inclusive, compassionate community for all is stronger than ever.” 

Bal Harbor Mayor Gabriel Groisman tweeted: “The Jewish community in our country must get serious about our self-defense, real quick. This was today in Orlando.”

NSM has said that it plans to hold more events, including one in Washington D.C. on Apr. 23. 

This is the second time this month that HBCUs have received bomb threats. On Jan. 5, eight schools were evacuated. 

Spelman College, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Florida Memorial University, Howard University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina Central University, Prairie View A&M University in Texas, and Xavier University of Louisiana reported bomb threats. According to The Washington Post, no explosions occurred.

The rise in antisemitism and racism in the last two years is staggering. According to a report from the American Jewish Committee released in Oct. 2021, one in four American Jews say they have been targets of antisemitism in the last 12 months; four in 10 American Jews have changed their behavior out of fear; four out of 10 of all Americans have personally witnessed antisemitic incidents; and 82% of American Jews say antisemitism has risen over the last five years—while only 44% of the general public believes that to be the case.

Saturday, police in Washington D.C. announced the arrest of a suspect in connection with a series of swastika graffiti in the city. 

ABC News reported that Geraldo Pando, 34, was charged with “display of certain emblems and defacing private/public property.” The Metropolitan Police said, Pando has “no known fixed address,” and allegedly spray-painted the hate symbol on the pillars outside Union Station around 12:45 a.m. on Jan. 28. He then scrawled swastikas on three other buildings later in the night. 

“This antisemitic and hateful symbol has no place in our city, and we stand united with the members of our Jewish community against antisemitism in all its forms,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a statement.

Also, Sunday, Fulton County Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis was forced to call in the FBI, after former President Donald Trump singled out prosecutors investigating his role in the Jan. 6 domestic terrorist event at the U.S. Capitol.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Willis, sent a letter to J.C. Hacker, head of the bureau’s Atlanta field office, to ask that the FBI conduct a risk assessment of both the Fulton County Courthouse and Government Center and additionally provide protective resources such as federal agents and intelligence as her office continues to dig into Trump’s actions during the 2020 election. 

“We must work together to keep the public safe and ensure that we do not have a tragedy in Atlanta similar to what happened at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” Willis wrote to Hacker.

The letter followed a rally Trump gave in Conroe, Texas where he called Willis’ probe “prosecutorial misconduct at the highest level.”

“If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt,” Trump said. 

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