Monday afternoon around 3 p.m. Mississippi State University students, professors, LGBT Union members and members of the greater Starkville community gathered to witness and participate in a peaceful protest on MSU’s campus in front of the Colvard Student Union in light of recent controversy across the country over the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. 
Leading up to the start of the protest, several people addressed the crowd and spoke about concerns with the unjustified deaths of African-Americans at the hands of police officers and what those deaths represent. 
After the speakers, participants laid down side by side in the cold shadow of the Union to silently demonstrate their unity and concern for the recent violent events. 
Ravi Perry, associate professor of political science, said the “Die in” was focused on justice.
“This was the ‘Die in,’ a gathering of people concerned in the Golden Triangle Region about justice,” he said. 
After many minutes of silence, Perry, wearing a shirt that asked ‘Got Justice?,’ stood up. 
“Let us do for each other what we could not do for Michael or Trayvon,” Perry said. “Reach down to your right and help someone beside you up.”
Quickly, the symbolic dead rose and Pastor Stone, from Starkville’s Second Baptist Missionary Church, outlined the plan to march from the Union, across campus and down Mississippi Highway 12 aided by the Starkville Police Department, who held traffic back as the progression made its way to the intersection of Highway 12, Blackjack Road and Spring Street. 
“Hands up!” Perry called, running up and down the length of protesters.
“Don’t Shoot!” they replied.
At the end of the march, in between the Hampton Inn and Strangebrew Coffeehouse, the group formed a circle in the middle of the intersection. Blue lights flashed as squad cars surrounded the protesters – not in an attempt to corral them, but rather to protect them as they held hands and sang “We Shall Overcome” after Stone led those gathered in prayer. 
After citing the importance of pacifism in Dr. Martin Luther King’s movement, Stone asked that the group disperse peacefully, and many started the long walk back toward campus. 
Jabari Sellers, instructor of an African-American studies class, said the protest encouraged teamwork in pushing for change. 
“It shows that everyone is willing to get together and become one for a cause,” he said. “One of the things I tell my students a lot is, in order for things to change, the younger generation has to get together and do things, just like back in the ‘60s when they all got together. Not just blacks and whites, everybody has to get together to make a change.”
In the wake of the events in Ferguson, Missouri and the increasing militarization of police forces, Taylor James, fashion merchandising major, said she commends the SPD for supporting the protest.
“I appreciate that they [the police] would come out and support this when they are being made out to be the bad guys in all this,” she said. 
Sellers reiterated his belief that working together is vital for progress and said that change will not come from protests alone. 
“It’s just like Pastor Stone says,” Sellers said. “It has to be a system approach. It can’t be one person, two people or ten. We have to get together and get in those careers where we can make a change. We have to go out and vote. We have to do a lot of those things just as they did back in the past. We can’t just stop with demonstrations, we have to show it with our actions. We have to support one another. I believe that this is just the start of the beginning as far as Starkville and Mississippi goes.”