A little before 11 a.m. Wednesday, Ben Wright sat in an Academy camping chair on top of a blue tarp and read. A couple dozen students surrounded the history professor inside the Liberated Zone, known most days as Chess Plaza, at the University of Texas at Dallas. Wright’s speciality is abolition studies, and the Liberated Zone is what the protesters named their short-lived encampment at the intersection of two main campus thoroughfares. Wright led a read-in with students who, like others across the country, had gathered to demand their university divest any assets from companies that profit off the war in Gaza.
“We’re reading an article about the destruction of universities in Gaza,” Wright said.
Six hours later, Wright was arrested with at least 18 others, mostly students, as a throng of law enforcement officers from five different agencies, including an Allen PD SWAT team, dismantled and disposed of barricades and tents that made up the Liberated Zone. Three history professors were among the arrestees who were held overnight at the Collin County Jail. Each was charged with criminal trespassing. Wright could not be reached for comment on Thursday morning because he was still in custody waiting to see a judge.
The protesters who filled the encampment at UT Dallas did not commit an act of violence, express any hate speech, or destroy property. The group of students, faculty, and community members chose to deliberately occupy a public space on a public university campus as many social movements have done throughout American history, an action deemed a step too far in the eyes of the university and authorities.