Vigil in Trafalgar Square for Jason Arday (pic: Guy Smallman)
Some 30,000 people assembled in London on Monday evening to pay their respects to Jason Arday.
The crowd, who came together for a vigil called by Stand Up To Racism (SUTR), filled the space in front of the National Gallery, in an inspiring show of solidarity.
Jason Arday was found dead at his home on Friday of last week, a week after resigning from his professor role at the University of Cambridge.
He said at the time that resigning was the only way to end the “relentless allegations” against him.
The smear campaign was started by Nathan Cofnas, a self-described “race realist.” And the press joined in the racist witch-hunt against him.
At the rally, one speaker after another slammed the media for their complicity in Jason’s death.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, who represents the constituency where he lived, said the media had carried out an “onslaught that was merciless and relentless.”
Misan Harriman, an activist, filmmaker and photographer who has documented the anti-racist movement in Britain, highlighted one headline that read, “Professor Arday is a gift that keeps on giving.”
“Imagine being so lost in the business of cruelty that you relish hurting another human for sport with your own poisoned pen,” he said.
MP Diane Abbott said the press was out for Jason Arday from day one.
“What you have to remember is that this wasn’t a matter of a few weeks,” she said.
“He was first appointed as a professor in Cambridge three years ago and for those three years he has had a vicious campaign from people who just didn’t believe that a black man should be a Cambridge professor.”
And she added that the problem is not confined to Cambridge.
“Stop and think how many people at other top universities think exactly the same,” she said.
“But it wasn’t just a campaign against one professor, it was a campaign against all of us.”
Samira Ali, a national organiser for SUTR, called out the Telegraph newspaper, alongside other national papers, for hounding Jason Arday.
“Shame! Shame! Shame on them! So while we have to remember Professor Jason’s legacy, we cannot forget the media’s racist witch-hunt that has not stopped,” she said.
The vigil began with a minute’s silence. And at the end, as people left, they laid flowers in Trafalgar Square in tribute to Jason.
But along with the moving tributes, there was a palpable sense of rage at the racist system that put him through so much pain and suffering.
As SUTR co-convenor Weyman Bennett said from the stage, “No justice, no peace.”
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