University of Maryland pilots course on hate crimes, honoring Lt. Richard W. Collins III

Students engage in a new course on anti-blackness and hate crimes in honor of Lt. Richard W. Collins III. (Jade Tran/The Black Explosion)

Outside Montgomery Hall stands a brick memorial with a fountain and granite plaque honoring Lt. Richard W. Collins III. While many pass the fountain without reflecting on its meaning, Collins’ legacy endures far beyond his hate-fueled murder at the University of Maryland in 2017.

This semester, the university offered a one-of-a-kind course in his honor called “Hate Crimes in the U.S.: What Lt. Richard W. Collins Can Teach Us About History, Hope, and Healing.”

The seminar places 20 students from both this university and Bowie State University in one classroom to confront the difficult complexities of anti-Blackness and hate crimes in the U.S.

“After the murder of Lt. Collins in 2017, the campuses came together and we decided we needed to do something to move forward,” said Dr. Jeanette Snider, assistant research professor with the Social Justice Alliance and Anti-Black Racism Initiative and co-professor of this course alongside Dr. Rashawn Ray.

The course, created through a collaboration between the Social Justice Alliance and the Anti-Black Racism Initiative, is housed by the university’s sociology department. It also partnered with Bowie State, Collins’ university at the time of his death, and Collins’ family to address hate as a social justice issue in higher education.

The course primarily meets online but includes in-person sessions featuring expert guest lecturers from across the nation. Topics range from antisemitism and Islamophobia to violence targeting LGBTQIA+ communities.

"[We] really unearthed a lot of the inadequacies of hate crimes throughout our country, and in particular within the state of Maryland,” Snider said.

During the final class of the semester, Dr. Melissa Brown, an assistant professor at Santa Clara University, led an in-depth discussion on a growing generational concern: the rise of online hate and its spread through social media. Brown spotlighted the ways that cyberbullying manifests in chambers such as subreddits, X, formerly known as Twitter, and other social media platforms.

The creation of the course is directly tied to Collins’ death, particularly after Maryland’s hate crime law was initially too weak to hold the perpetrator fully accountable, Snider said. The Maryland Hate Law was amended and strengthened in 2020 and is now named the Lt. Collins Hate Crime Law in honor of his family's tragedy and advocacy.

The course’s impact resonates deeply with students, many of whom have developed a deeper understanding of hate crimes within the context of Collins’ death. Senior psychology major Jonathan Kitching shared that he knew little about Collins’ story before taking the class.

“Prepare to shed some tears, prepare to feel scared,” Kitching said. “But then also, stay strong and understand that knowing the information is the good fight.”

Kitching said learning about Collins’ murder on a campus reshaped his perspective.

“To get here and see that memorial, especially as someone from a military family, I was like, ‘damn.’ It made me kind of, like, maybe disillusioned with what I wanted to do here,” he said.

Beyond guest lectures, students participate in interactive events tied to their coursework.

According to Snider, the class will attend a spring symposium near the anniversary of Collins’ death, encouraging students to tackle difficult yet timely conversations about social justice. The symposium will explore how athletics, entertainment and public policy intersect with issues of equity and justice.

Yet, the impact of curriculum extends miles past the four walls of academia and into the real world.

Students and veterans will honor Collins’ birthday with a service event to support the Baltimore community. According to the university calendar, hands-on service activities will include helping with farm fencing, cleaning sidewalks, organizing shelving in a trailer, and installing solar lighting.

Offered in the fall with its pilot this past semester, this course exists as a gateway into the complex umbrella of social justice, particularly focusing on a topic specific to both this university and Bowie State, as well as the nation at large.

For students like senior criminology and criminal justice major Lauren Hinckley, deep-diving into the roots of hate crimes is especially relevant in today’s political climate.

“When we have leaders that are supposed to be leading our country, and they are kind of hateful themselves, they influence their following to also be hateful,” Hinckley said. “Leaders can influence others to increase hate.”

Both Hinckley and Kitching encourage students of all backgrounds, regardless of race, to take the course and educate themselves on these difficult topics.

“Ignorance is not a sin, but you can stop it,” Kitching said. “But, if you are someone that sees ignorance and says, ‘Yeah, I’ll stay here,’ stagnation is the evil that we’re talking about.”