As the final City Council meeting of the semester draws near, it is clear that there will be cries for justice; the question is what organization will be sounding them. Up until now, the student protests have been organized by the Irvin Landrum Student Organizing Committee. However, according to Max Chang ’02, a member of the newly formed Students of Color Coalition, an offshoot organization, the Landrum group, "from what we understand, doesn’t exist."

Lenard Molina ’02, one of the more active members of the Committee, acknowledges that the group was, in some sense, dissolved after complaints and desertions by students of color. Contrary to Chang’s claim, he feels that the group has been reformed after taking the criticisms into account. The complaints arose around issues of leadership; the 10 students who have formed the Coalition felt that the Committee had lost sight of race as the primary issue.

"The issue is a race issue, not [one about] fascist police," according to Rhonda Carter CMC ’02. During the town hall protest that focused on Thomas Sheidecker’s nomination to the position of Chief of Police, Carter said that she and a number of other students of color looked at each other and said "we need to go meet now."

Sheidecker’s nomination was successfully opposed on the grounds that he had been involved in several evidence-tampering scandals in LA in the early 1980s.

Carter, like many other members of the Coalition, felt that focusing on Scheidecker took time and attention away from the issues of racism and of justice for Irvin Landrum, Jr.

Chang, who felt that the Committee should have spent more time speaking with Landrum’s mother, Tracey Lee, said that forming the Coalition was the only way to ensure that there would be emphasis on finding "the right way to reach Justice for Irvin."

"I didn’t see the old group taking the race issue at heart," Chang said.

"The race issue was lost because the students in leadership positions in the initial group couldn’t identify with that struggle," according to Carter.

A member of the Coalition who wished to remain anonymous said that he felt "threatened by the fact that a black man was killed and nothing was done about it. No accountability, no apology…the fact that I feel fear on and off campus because of the Claremont Police Department, that’s terrible." He felt that these concerns are being more adequately addressed by the Coalition.

Josina Morita PI ’02 added that "white leadership marginalized students of color [on the Committee]. By not dealing with race and not respecting the opinions, issues and ideas of students of color the old group was perpetuating the same racism that it was claiming to be fighting."

The Coalition hopes to keep race and justice at the forefront by establishing students of color in leadership positions in the movement. "We all know that because a young black male died, black leaders had to be at the forefront," said Chang, a Taiwanese American. Chang said that while he has been involved in the movement for quite some time, he has always been conscious of the fact African Americans should be leading it. However, he also stressed that "the movement has leaders from all communities."

"I don’t think that it’s in any way exclusive, nor should it be," an anonymous member said.

"Students of color see an opportunity to take a leadership role that they should have taken from the beginning," said Neel Garlapati ’02. "Irvin Landrum was shot because he black." For Garlapati, it is only natural that students of color would occupy leadership roles in the group.

The Coalition hopes that they will be able to draw more students of color into the movement. The organizers feel that their stronger commitment to racial justice and their closer ties to students of color will attract these students. More broadly, they hope to increase public discussion on the Landrum issue and may hold a teach-in before the final City Council meeting, which they plan to attend.

According to Molina, the Committee will hold a silent vigil outside of the meeting.

Molina was surprised by the creation of the new group. He feels that the issues within the Committee have been largely worked out. In a meeting this past Monday, he said that several students expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership structure, goals, and tactics of the Committee. At Monday’s meeting, the group "dissolved and reformed with a different leadership structure" in order to make leadership more democratic.

By Molina’s account, the Committee was never intended to be hierarchical. The fact that leaders did emerge in the group was not preplanned, but rather a result of certain people assuming those roles. "We want people to help us and we want input from everybody," Molina said.

Monday’s meeting also provided Committee leaders with input for their discussion with Mayor Karen Rosenthal and Counselman Paul Held this past Wednesday.

Chang, who attended the internal Committee meeting, felt good about it and said that "it didn’t stray from what we thought was important."

The meeting with Rosenthal and Held, however, received mixed reviews. "We didn’t get any guarantees, but we did establish a line of communication," Molina said.

Both groups plan to be active in the fall. While Molina holds out hope that "if there are differences, they can be worked out." Coalition members seem resistant to return.

"I just hope that all this boils down to what’s important, which is justice for Irvin Landrum," Chang said.