On Sept. 7, days before the tenth anniversary of Sept. 11, students at North Carolina A&T took time to honor the lives lost by this terrorist attack.

Set up in front of Williams Dining Hall, the National Center for Community and Justice and A&T’s Middle College sponsored a “911 Remembrance Wall,” in which people signed it to pay tribute.

“I signed the wall because I love America and I wanted to pay tribute to those who lost their lives,” said Brandon Johnson, freshmen electrical engineering student from Chicago. “It’s a great honor for A&T to be able to host it, and I think it being here helped to uplift our pride and unity.” 

Between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., hundreds of students wrote short messages in remembrance on a thin piece of cloth the size of a billboard that faintly showed the American flag as its background.  

As students were standing in line waiting for their turn at the wall, conversations drifted from everywhere describing personal experiences on that day. They recalled where they were when they first heard the buildings had been crashed into, schools being canceled, not noticing airplanes in the air, and frantic phone calls to family members to see if they were ok, among other things.

Most undergraduate students currently on campus were of middle school and elementary school age in 2001.

Stephen Adams, a junior at the Middle College, was living in the Bronx, N.Y. at the time of the attack. He recalled his family relocating to Greensboro, N.C. two years later because his mother was living in fear in the city.

“[September 11th] was very chaotic,” said Adams. “The school day was longer, all the public transportation in New York had stopped, so our buses didn’t come and we had to wait on our parents. I was in elementary school at the time. It wasn’t until we got home to watch the news [that we saw] how the plane [flew] into the building.”

Greensboro was one of eight cities selected to participate in this signage initiative. Before coming to A&T, people from Eastern Guildford High School and High Point University also had an opportunity to sign the wall. It will be presented at a memorial event open to the Greensboro community before finally stopping at Ground Zero in New York.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council also helped attract attention to the wall according to Duane Louis, social worker for the Middle College. He says in an effort to show collaboration between [the] Middle College and A&T students he asked for their participation.

“All Greek organizations are for the same motive but approaching it at different angles; basically [today] we are all here to show support for the loss and tragedy that happened,” said Cedric Carter, president of the Eta Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated.

Charles Jones, President of the Beta Epsilon Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, said his organization agreed to participate because, “this was a great way to get Aggies active in national news and get people remembering 911. It was as much a travesty as a triumph. Our nation was able to overcome so much adversity. This was the first time young Americans have seen an attack on our own soil.”

• LaRia Land, Staff Reporter