Shortly before getting up from her seat during the middle of Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll’s campus speech, FAMU senior Ciara Taylor posted a copy of the protest statement she planned to read on her twitter page.The script entitled "How Dare You" appeared in a cell phone photo along with a copy of the FAMU Black History Month Convocation program. (Posted below)
Taylor then walked out into the aisle of Lee Hall Auditorium and began shouting her message toward the guest speaker. A startled Carroll paused and looked at Taylor before returning to her speech.
FAMU police officers escorted Taylor out of the building as she yelled “FAMU Forever!” 20 other students also exited in a show of support for her.
Taylor only gave a veiled warning about her intentions before Carroll’s visit. Yesterday, she tweeted: “It’s about to go down: I hope you are ready #FAMU.”
On Feb. 8, Taylor wrote an article in the student newspaper covering FAMU’s decision to invite Carroll to serve as the Black History Month Convocation speaker.
Taylor is the co-founder of a student activist group named Grand Theft Education that has launched numerous protests against the K-20 budget cuts supported by Gov. Rick Scott’s administration. She chose to demonstrate against Carroll due to anger about comments that the lieutenant government made concerning Martin Luther King, Jr.
The comment that made Taylor upset came as part of statement that Carroll made on Jan. 15, 2012. “When the governor selected me to be his running mate, he did not look at the color of my skin, he looked at the content of my character and my integrity and work ethic, and what I brought to the table. This is the dream of Dr. King that was realized for me,” Carroll said.
"The way that Scott's administration has been in terms of you know the minority community in Florida, the working class community, the student community, the elderly. These are not representations of Doctor Martin Luther King's dream at all," Taylor said.
She was also among the 1,200 FAMU students who marched to the Governor’s Mansion on Dec. 15, 2011 in protest of Scott’s attempt to pressure the Board of Trustees to suspend President James H. Ammons.
Taylor had some choice words for the governor that night when he told the FAMU students he could relate them because he grew up in a poor family that lived in public housing.
“We’re not all poor!” Taylor shouted.
