Coe College students hold “die-in” on campus

CEDAR RAPIDS - A group of about 75 Coe students and other members of the community staged a protest Tuesday afternoon near downtown. As part of a nationwide trend of protests following the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York, organizer Whitni Smith said the demonstration was intended as a way for Eastern Iowans to let their voices be heard. Smith the recent deaths of Brown and Garner, both black men, at the hands of white police officers are greatly concerning for her and other Coe students.

'We wanted to show Cedar Rapids and the Coe College campus that we care about this, that this is important, that we're not just going to be silent about this,” Smith explained. 'We're going to stand up, we're going to say something, we're going to say this is wrong.”

The students started the protest by walking out of classes with their hands held up in the air. They chanted the phrases, 'Hands up, don't shoot,” and 'Black lives matter,” heard at other demonstrations throughout the country. The group gathered briefly at the center of campus, and then walked to the intersection of College Drive and First Avenue to hold a 'die-in” for about five minutes. Protesters silently laid in street holding up signs, as Cedar Rapids police officers parked cars at the entrance of College Drive to block traffic.

'A lot people do just a walkout or just a protest, or just a die-in, and so we decided to kind of - since it's the last day of classes and everyone's going to go home soon - we decided to try and put it all together and do as much as we could,” Smith said.

On Monday, the Cedar Rapids Police Department said they had been communicating with Coe students and staff about the protest and plan to block College Drive to ensure the safety of the demonstrators and those traveling near the protest.