On the unseasonably temperate first day of classes, students sat outside the Danforth University Center lounging on new Adirondack chairs enjoying the weather and catching up with friends. But just as the St. Louis community continues to face the effects of last August’s events in Ferguson, Washington University students continue to support the movements that followed.

Skyler Kessler | Student Life

As noon approached, students unfurled a sign reading “Black Lives Matter,” read poetry and held several minutes of silence in honor of lives lost due to police violence.

Students hosting the event said that it was important to start the academic year by recalling all of the work that had been done in the past months and the lives that have been lost over the summer.

“The reason we’re here is to empower you guys to speak up, use your privilege to dismantle white supremacy in all its forms. Change doesn’t start after graduation; change starts now,” sophomore and organizer Kiara Sample said. “The people who have been killed this summer are more than names—they are people who have loved and suffered and feared and felt pain and joy. And so we’re here today to uplift the names and lives of black people who rest in power.”

Approximately 50 students gathered for the demonstration, standing on the DUC’s front lawn for part of an hour before dispersing.

Senior Fabian Barch noted the importance of holding such an event on the first day of classes.

“For me it’s kind of like a way of remembering the pain that was felt over the past year,” Barch said. “Almost like saying grace before a meal, to remember all of the work that went in, and I feel like in a lot of ways it’s also a promise that there are a lot of people here, people who remember, people who are living in a way that testifies to the pain that is felt.”