An anonymous Twitter poster who only identified as a freshman at all-women’s Spelman College said she was raped at all-men’s Morehouse University, sparking protests and administrative action at both Atlanta universities.
The account, called “@RapedAtSpelman,” posted a series of tweets on Tuesday recounting an alleged gang rape at Morehouse.
“This is my freshman year at Spelman and my last year because I decided to leave after what happened to me,” the account said in its first tweet.
“I went to a party with my friends there were alot of people there and it was really fun so we decided to drink with the upperclassmen,” another tweet said.
“I was drunk but that doesn’t mean I forgot about what happened. I went to the bathroom upstairs to throw up and when I opened the door I was… surrounded by 4 Morehouse students who took me to another room and took turns raping me. I was in shock about what had happened,” two more tweets read.
Spelman College and Morehouse University are both historically black colleges and are considered sister schools.
The tweets prompted backlashes at both colleges, with students holding up signs around campus and duct-taping their mouths shut to protest the administrative response to the accuser, who said Spelman tried to “silence” her after she reported the crime.
The Spelman and Morehouse administrations both said they are aware of the accusation. Morehouse President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. said the university had opened an investigation into the claim.
“Sexual assault is a heinous form of violence and it is a stark contradiction to Morehouse College at its best,” Mr. Wilson said in a statement. “The information anonymously shared on Twitter was our very first indication of this incident.”
Spelman President Mary Schmidt Campbell encouraged the anonymous student to come forward.
“I know that members of our Spelman community join me in expressing heartbreak and outrage over the incidents and experiences recounted on Twitter,” Ms. Campbell said in a statement.
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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