Roughly 60 people gathered around the steps of Chalmers Hall on the campus of Kansas State University Tuesday evening to remember Briona White, a 22-year-old K-State student who was gunned down along with a 20-year-old man in an alley in Chicago’s Far South Side on Aug. 6.
The memorial was orchestrated by the K-State Black Student Union in conjunction with the KSU Department of Biology.
White’s parents, Kenneth and Monica, were also in attendance from Chicago.
“I want you all to strive forward to whatever goals you want to accomplish,” Kenneth said. “Do what’s right. Live the life you’re supposed to live, so you can be somebody.
“Briona wanted desperately to come back here. To finish up. She talked about this. She had her bags ready and we were getting ready bring her back here. And to all you standing here, I want nothing but the best for you all, to finish.”
White’s mother, Monica, echoed her husband.
“For those of you that did know her, she was like a shining star,” she said. “I say to you all today, that it’s truly a blessing for all of you to be with us at this time and whatever life’s path is for you, strive to be the best — the very best.”
White was close to finishing up her degree to be an orthodontist.
Minister Jahvelle Rhone opened the memorial with prayer and said White’s parents have already declared forgiveness for their daughter’s shooter, who has yet to be found.
KSU Associate Professor of Biology Kent Kerby spoke of his fondness for White’s attitude and her smile, noting it made sense she studied dentistry.
Pat Bosco, KSU Dean of Students, said the tragedy highlights the complicated problems of gun violence, while Myra Gordon, K-State’s associate provost for diversity, pleaded for those in attendance to look out for each other and to confront the issues that create gun violence.
“It’s about us as black folks,” Gordon said. “It’s about us. We’ve got to solve this problem, because in a case like this there are many victims. We’re better than this.
“We’ll show the way with our own light, and it is about ‘Black Lives Matter.’ The people we lose to gun violence are not just a bunch of faceless, nameless gangbangers. These are all our young people. This is someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s niece, someone’s cousin, someone’s classmate.
“Black lives most certainly do matter. Briona’s life mattered.”
