An anti-racism activist accused GW officials of disinviting her from speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration event due to her pro-Palestinian statements.
Bree Newsome Bass said Multicultural Student Services Center officials reached out to her speaking engagement representatives about a month ago to ask if she’d like to speak about King’s legacy on campus during King Week, the weeklong celebration of the civil rights activist. She said University officials rescinded the MSSC’s invitation this month while she and her representatives were arranging the details of her appearance because she believes GW wanted to go in a “different direction.”
“George Washington University has rescinded its invitation for me to speak at its 2024 MLK event,” Newsome Bass said in a tweet Tuesday. “I assume it’s because of my outspoken support for Free Palestine at a time students face increased repression on campus.”
Newsome Bass said colleges like Wesleyan University and the University of California, Irvine, have invited her to speak about King in the past, but she assumes GW officials walked back the invitation due to her pro-Palestinian stances. She said she doesn’t know for sure why officials disinvited her, but university leaders at other schools had never before rescinded an invitation for her to speak on a campus.
University spokesperson Julia Metjian said Thursday that a staff member “prematurely reached out” to Newsome Bass before officials finalized the week’s programming.
“Recently, a staff member prematurely reached out to a potential speaker before final decisions were made about the program’s approach and content,” Metjian said in an email. “We regret any confusion this has caused.”
Past King Week speakers have included D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and Michelle Morse, the chief medical officer at the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.
Metjian declined to comment on whether Newsome Bass’ pro-Palestinian advocacy influenced officials’ decision to walk back her invitation or how officials decide on speakers for campus events.
Keppler Speakers, the speaking engagement agency that GW contacted to approach Newsome Bass, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Universities across the country, including the Universities of Pennsylvania and Vermont, have barred pro-Palestinian speakers or films from appearing on campus as alumni and donors place pressure on university leaders to bar messaging they deem antisemitic.
Newsome Bass — best known for scaling a flagpole to remove a Confederate flag at the South Carolina Capitol in the wake of a 2015 racist mass shooting in Charleston — has been vocal about her opposition to the Israeli military’s violence against Palestinians in Gaza. She has frequently criticized President Joe Biden for not calling for a cease-fire in Gaza on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“570,000 people in Gaza are starving only because they’re being deliberately starved to death by the sadistic will of Joe Biden who refuses to declare a permanent ceasefire,” Newsome Bass said in a tweet Thursday.
Newsome Bass said there are direct connections between King’s commentary and Israel’s ongoing assault in the Gaza Strip, so she is disappointed she will not be able to speak with students about the similarities.
“I can write all day, I can publish, I can say the same things that I would say, but it’s really having that opportunity to interact, having the opportunity for students to ask me direct questions, and really speaking to specifically what’s on their mind from my perspective — that’s what is lost,” Newsome Bass said in an interview.
She said while not all students agree with her pro-Palestinian views, college campuses should be safe spaces for discussion and civil debate.
Newsome Bass said she had planned on addressing King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech in 1967, in which he condemned the Vietnam War and its devastation on the Vietnamese and American people. She said there are “tremendous parallels” between the Vietnam War and the war in Gaza, like U.S. military aid to Israel while U.S. hospitals are financially struggling, similar to the war in Vietnam while homelessness in America was rising.
She said King’s commentary on racism is relevant to the war in Gaza because people have been more disturbed by the mass casualties from Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel than the Israeli military’s killing of thousands of civilians and children in Gaza in the war that has followed.
“It begs the question: What is the point of it, and how do we arrive at a point where we are essentially saying that some lives are worth less than others?” Newsome Bass said. “And that’s the complete opposite of the spirit of human equality and justice.”
