FBI launches hate crime investigation after HBCUs targeted in 'nationwide series of bomb threats'
The FBI launched a hate crime and violent extremism investigation after a series of bomb threats made this week against more than a dozen Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Referring to a "nationwide series of bomb threats to Historically Black Colleges and Universities," the FBI said in a statement Wednesday that the threats are "being investigated as Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism and hate crimes." No explosive devices have been found at any of the locations.
The FBI is also investigating threats made against houses of worship, the statement said.
The investigation is led by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces and involves more than 20 FBI field offices across the country, according to the statement. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has also announced an investigation.
Students, faculty and staff at HBCUs in eight states and Washington, D.C., were on alert Tuesday as classes were moved online or rescheduled. Many institutions issued "all clear" messages by Tuesday afternoon after law enforcement searches failed to find devices on campuses.
Tuesday's incidents targeting at least 13 HBCUs were the latest in a string of threats made against Black universities. Howard University in Washington, D.C., also received threats Monday and Jan. 4.
A threat to Bethune-Cookman University was delivered by a caller who described an elaborate plot involving seven bombs hidden around the school's perimeter, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said at a news conference. The threats to some of the other schools also were phoned in, school officials have said, but few details of those calls have been released.
The bomb threats came as Black History Month began Tuesday.
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White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration wants students and the leaders of the colleges to know “that we are standing with them as they face these threats,” Psaki said.
“It is scary, it is horrifying, it is terrible that these students, these faculty, these institutions are feeling under threat,” she said.
Nylah Tolliver was in her dorm at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans when she read an email alert saying the school received a bomb threat Tuesday morning. Tolliver said the threats made her think about the 1963 bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in which four young girls were killed and 20 others injured.
“It reminded me of that because those people were just going to church, and they couldn’t even do that in peace," Tolliver, a freshman, said. "And here we are in 2022, trying to further our education to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, health care professionals, we basically just want to be successful and create a future for ourselves and we can’t even do that without having a bomb threat.”
Contributing: Ryan Miller, Kevin Johnson, The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bomb threats against HBCUs being investigated as hate crimes, FBI says
