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Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, College of William & Mary

From October 2017 to October 2017
College of William & Mary (Public college or university)
Williamsburg, VA, United States

Identity of Speakers

  • Claire Guthrie Gastañaga
    Unaffiliated
    Invited for non-academic lecture

    Claire Guthrie Gastañaga was the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Virginia

Resources

Additional Information

  • Incident Nature:
    University-sponsored lecture/address/panel
  • Incident Political Orientation:
    Neither
  • Incident Responses:
    Rally or Protests
  • Incident Status:
    No litigation
  • Incident Protested
  • Did not involve Speech Codes

Summary

Claire Guthrie Gastañaga was the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Virginia.  Gastañaga was scheduled to speak on the campus of the College of William & Mary on October 4, 2017 at an event co-sponsored by William & Mary’s student-run programming organization Alma Mater Productions and the ACLU. Shortly after she began speaking, she was shouted down by members of the Black Lives Matter chapter at William & Mary. A representative from Black Lives Matter spoke a little more than 20 minutes into the demonstration, accusing the ACLU of “hiding” behind the rhetoric of free speech to defend white supremacists. The speaker was referring to the ACLU’s support of white nationalists’ lawsuit against the city of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Following the demonstration, William & Mary President Taylor Revely released a statement saying that “William & Mary has a powerful commitment to the free play o f ideas…Unfortunately, that type of exchange was unable to take place Wednesday night when an event to discuss a very important matter—the meaning of the First Amendment—could not be held as planned.”