The president of a historically Black university said she was “outraged” after students were racially profiled on a class trip to Atlanta. Spartanburg County authorities, accompanied by drug-sniffing dogs, boarded the bus headed to a conference on financial advancement, and proceeded to inspect every student and their belongings under the guise of a routine traffic stop. “This scene is reminiscent of the 1950s and 1960s—armed police, interrogating innocent Black students, conducting searches without probable cause, and blood-thirsty dogs,” Shaw University President Paulette Dillard fumed in a statement, noting that nothing illegal was discovered during the search. “Our students stood tall amid an unnerving and humiliating experience and because of their dignified and professional response, the situation did not escalate into something far more sinister.”
