'Aggies United' Event To Counter White Nationalist's Speech

Roland Martin & Hill Harper To Protest White Nationalist Speech At Texas A&M

"If we are quiet in the face of hate, what we are doing is contributing to that moving forward," Martin said of Richard Spencer's planned appearance on the campus.

In response to Alt-Right leader Richard Spencer’s upcoming speech at Texas A&M on Tuesday, students, alums, faculty, members of the community and the administration plan to hold a counter-event at Kyle Field, the campus football stadium in College Station, Texas.

The event will be co-hosted by award-winning actor and best-selling author Hill Harper, Texas A&M Student Body President Hannah Wimberly, Holocaust survivor Max Glauben. The event will also feature special performances by singer-songwriter Ben Rector and Grammy-nominated singer, and actress-model V. Bozeman.

Roland Martin, NewsOne Now host and a member of Texas A&M’s Class of ’91, will also attend the event.

While Texas A&M officials have denounced Spencer’s appearance, the right to free speech bars them from blocking the event.

During a segment Tuesday on NewsOne Now, Martin condemned the decision by alum and activist Preston Wiginton to invite Spencer to speak on the campus.

“There are individuals who have these beliefs,” he said on air. “And I simply believe that if we are quiet in the face of hate, what we are doing is contributing to that moving forward.”

Avis Jones-DeWeever, author of How Exceptional Black Women Lead, agreed with Martin during an appearance on the show.

“There are lots of people who like to spread lies that those types of folks don’t exist,” she argued.“Now we’re at a moment in which we don’t have time anymore to sit here and deny reality. We have to sort of pull back the covers and say, ‘This exists in America.'”

Watch Martin and the NewsOne Now panel discuss the “Aggies United” event in the video clip above.

Watch NewsOne Now with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.

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