It was right before Thanksgiving in 2014 that the St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown. Students at universities across the country were either at home with their families or preparing to leave for the Thanksgiving break.
At Dartmouth, the winter break starts with Thanksgiving. By the time students returned to campus in January 2015 from their winter break, the controversy would have blown over, Dartmouth professor Aimee S. Bahng realized.
The tragic events of Ferguson, Missouri, were already far removed from life at Dartmouth College, situated as it is in the quiet reaches of Upper Valley on the border between New Hampshire and Vermont. Given the physical distance, and the timing, the conversation on campus about the justice of the grand jury’s decision would never have the chance to begin.
“My singular goal was to keep the conversation going,” Bahng tells Diverse.
