Auburn University Cancels Speech By ‘Alt-Right’ Leader Richard Spencer

New Face: White nationalist and leading ‘alt-right’ figure Richard Spencer addresses a crowd at Texas A&M University in December. Image by YouTube

By Aiden Pink April 17, 2017

Auburn University announced on Friday that “alt-right” leader Richard Spencer’s scheduled speech on campus would be cancelled.

The Alabama university had previously stated that while they “deplore his views,” the school also “supports the constitutional right to free speech.” But in a notice posted on their website on Friday afternoon, the administration announced that they had cancelled the event “based on legitimate concerns and credible evidence that it will jeopardize the safety of students, faculty, staff and visitors.”

Spencer, who had already paid $700 out of his own pocket for renting an auditorium and providing security, told The Plainsman, the Auburn student newspaper, that he was “not going to allow that to happen.”

“Auburn is going to rue the day that they made this total bullshit decision,” he said. “I will not back down. I will be there. This is going to be so much bigger than they ever imagined.”

He also posted a video to YouTube pledging that “If Auburn University thinks that I’m going to back down because they cancelled on me, that I just going to politely go away, then they don’t know me at all. I will 100 percent be on Auburn University’s campus at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 18.”

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected].

Aiden Pink is the Deputy News Editor for the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

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